The tomb of Ts'in
“It was piracy,” admitted Talham pleasantly. “A gross act of piracy,
undoubtedly.”
“I am glad you agree,” said De Costa.
“What would you call the act of running guns for half-breed
Philippians?” asked Captain Talham.
The old man flushed. It was not the accusation which annoyed him; it
was that horrid word “half-breed.”
“That would not be piracy,” continued Talham drily. “That would be
just an act contrary to every civilised law. Yes,” he said, “I am
Talham. I don’t need to hide it from you. What I really called myself
in those days does not matter. I took your coal; I took your rifles.
The rifles you were sending to niggers to enable them to shoot white
men.”
“Mr. Talham!” said the old man, springing to his feet.
“The rifles you were sending to niggers, I repeat,” said Talham, “so
that they might snipe the solitary pickets of the United States
army--so that they might murder and terrorise the helpless and unarmed
islanders. You’re not a fool--you know the breed of the Puljanes. Why,
you’re one yourself!”
Talham in his insolence was a most offensive man. Tillizinni had never
seen him in this mood except twice during the time he knew him.
Talham held very strong views regarding the colour question. With him
a man was either black or white; he recognised no intermediary stage.
Once let him depart from the pure white stock, and in Talham’s eyes he
might as well be coal-black. On this point he was a fanatic.
It was curious to see the old man wilt under the tall man’s vitriolic
tongue. It was as though he insensibly did homage in that moment to
the dominant race. Despite his vast riches, despite his undoubted
influence, he was a native in the presence of a white man.
Under the spell of Talham’s mastery he cringed. Not so the son. He was
one generation nearer whiteness. With a horrible noise which was half
a scream and half a strangled cry of hatred, he leapt at the other.
Talham half turned. His hand went out rigidly. It seemed to Tillizinni
that the young man did not check in his flight, but rather continued
it, describing a curve about the spot where Talham stood, until he
pulled up with a crash against the opposite wall. He went down in a
heap.
“I’m sorry!” said Talham--but he was addressing Tillizinni.
CHAPTER XII.
THE MESSAGE OF THE DEAD.
It was an embarrassing situation for Tillizinni. He saw the older
man’s eyes fixed on him accusingly as the youth, dazed and white,
picked himself up from the floor. Yet the detective said nothing.
“You shall hear from me, Signor Tillizinni,” said De Costa, senior. He
spoke with deliberation, and his tone was full of menace. “Scotland
Yard shall know that you consort with this adventurer, who, in
addition to being a pirate, is also a common thief.”
Tillizinni checked a movement of his impulsive friend with a gesture.
“A common thief?” he repeated pleasantly.
“A common thief--a burglar--who ransacked my house a fortnight ago,”
said De Costa. “Who cut a way through a door, and found--nothing!”
He bared his teeth in a triumphant smile.
“Here!” He thrust his hand into the inside pocket of his coat and
pulled out a short bladed knife, protected by a leather sheath.
“The burglar left this behind on a desk he had forced,” he said. “You
will observe, Ned, that your initials are on the blade--N.T.--Ned
Talham!”
Tillizinni smiled as the old man replaced the knife and made for the
door.
“Yet another fact to lay before Scotland Yard,” he said pleasantly, as
he opened the door for the angry pair. “N.T. also stands for Nicholos
Tillizinni.”
The son had reached the landing, and De Costa was passing through the
doorway to follow the waiting servant. At Tillizinni’s words he
turned.
“You?” he asked.
Tillizinni bowed.
“I came searching for a certain document stolen from the Chinese
Embassy,” he said. “Would you allow your son to wait in another room
whilst I tell you something?”
De Costa paused irresolutely.
He walked to the door.
“You may wait downstairs for me,” he said.
He came back and closed the door after him. Tillizinni strolled to the
other end of the room, his hands in his pockets, his dark brow
puckered in a thoughtful frown. He strolled back to meet De Costa.
“Won’t you sit down?” he said, but the old man made no move.
“As I said, I went to your house--burgled it if you will--it is one of
the crimes which I permit myself. I came to seek a certain dossier
containing a document which I had every reason to believe was in your
possession.”
“You found nothing?” said the old man steadily.
“I found nothing,” agreed Tillizinni. “At any rate, I did not find
that which I set forth to find. What I did discover, however, was
rather interesting. It was that you had at least three visitors on
that night, and that they had all been Chinamen, and that one, and the
most important of these”--he spoke slowly--“was quite in ignorance as
to the visit of the others.”
Not a muscle of the old man’s face moved.
“Go on,” he said.
Tillizinni had picked up a fountain pen from the desk and was pointing
his remarks with little flourishes which were peculiarly his.
“Well,” he began, and stopped with an exclamation of apology, for from
the waving fountain-pen a few drops had fallen upon the white
shirt-front of the visitor.
He stepped forward impulsively with his handkerchief and wiped them
clean.
De Costa was in some doubt as to whether he should reject such
civility. Then Tillizinni resumed.
“The presence of the two men was rather a mystery. I found no
indication that they had stayed any time, and I gathered by the fact
that you had written very elaborate directions, that they had come to
consult you as to the best method of getting out of England.”
Still the man made no sign.
“You had carefully written--possibly on two half-sheets of notepaper,
since I found the corresponding halves with the tell-tale address upon
them in the wastepaper basket--a string of names of places written in
English and blotted on a fairly clean pad. Since those names occur
twice I gathered there was some slight difference between them, and I
gather that you had advised them to take different routes.
“One went by way of Ostend to Petrograd, Moscow, and Tomsk, and _viâ_
the Trans-Siberian Railway; the other was apparently advised to leave
by way of Liverpool on a Chinese cargo boat which sailed this morning.
This much I gathered from the fact that you had given him the name of
an agent in Liverpool to whom he could apply. That also you very
indiscreetly blotted.”
The old man’s face was livid now.
“And what do you make of all this?” he asked with a show of bravado.
“As far as I can understand,” said Tillizinni, “two men in your pay
are responsible for the abstraction of a very important document from
the Chinese Embassy. Piecing the story together I understand that you
are in agreement with Soo, a scholarly gentleman and a mutual
acquaintance.”
He bowed ironically.
“At the last moment, or possibly long before the last moment, you
feared that Soo would play you false, and went behind his back to
bribe two hirelings to deliver what was found to you. Possibly you did
not see the workings of the Chinese mind, nor foresee the tragedy
which must inevitably occur when one member of the party engaged to
rob the ambassador happens to be the brother of your defrauded
partner.”
“The brother!”
De Costa was shocked, he was terrified; they read that in his eyes.
Tillizinni nodded.
“The brother,” he repeated, “of Ts’i Soo was the unfortunate man who
was found doubled up in the bureau of the ambassador’s study. As I
say, you probably did not foresee this unpleasant ending to the
adventure, and went into it with no more idea than of being party to a
minor felony. Your men killed the Chinaman who called himself ‘Star
above the Yamen’ because they saw no other way of silencing him. They
brought the documents straight on to you.”
“That is a lie!” said De Costa.
“They brought the documents to you,” repeated Tillizinni, “and they
have never left you day or night.”
He took a step closer to De Costa, and the old man shrunk back. His
hands went up to his right breast.
“They are probably in an inside pocket of your waistcoat,” said
Tillizinni. “May I see?”
He reached out his hand, but before he could touch him the old man
turned with a snarl, dashed open the door, and swung himself through
it, descending the steps at a pace which did credit to his age, but
was disastrous to his dignity.
Tillizinni laughed. He sat back in his chair and laughed that silent
chuckle of his for fully three minutes.
“But why--why,” protested Talham, “why not have taken the papers
whilst you could? For heaven’s sake, why did you let him go?”
Tillizinni shook his head.
“I could not take the document from him,” he said with a smile,
“because I had already taken it when I was wiping his shirt front,”
and he laid on the table a thin folded sheet closely written in
Chinese characters.
Very slowly Talham read:
“Chu, Mi, Tsan Sui, and Tulm, ............ together ............ as
brothers, swearing ............ This we say, being mechanical men from
divers provinces brought together, because of our great skill, to the
shadow of the Emperor’s house (here was something indecipherable) that
we shall finish the tomb, fitting bronze doors, also working on a
machine which the philosopher made.
“One of us to the other said--if the Emperor be buried and with him
mighty treasures, how easy will it be for us--we shall know all the
mechanical secrets of this place--to find a means for returning, and,
if there be treasure buried, to take it away with us; and we agreed.
So we have set this down for the guidance of our sons if we be dead
when the great attempt shall be made, that the bronze door which shall
fall at the entrance, and may not be lifted except with the strength
of fifty bullocks--and the ............ be taken away.
“We have made a pit so large as the door itself, and there is nothing
solid beneath that floor; so that if you shall find at either side of
the entrance, between two great rocks carved two bronze images buried
the length of a finger, between stones, you shall pull these and the
door will fall as it fell before, but never to be raised, save with
the strength of fifty bullocks.
“And inside is a large cave with two silver lamps which shall burn on
the day of its closing, and from one of these lamps there is a long
chain of bronze which runs through a tunnel along the roof, and is
mechanically connected (here again the manuscript is indecipherable).
“If you shall pull upon the silver lamp which is nearest the door of
bronze, the whole of the door of silver which is at the foot of the
steps shall open. I myself made this tunnel and placed the chain
therein, fixing with mechanical contrivance.
“Beware of all steps save the spirit steps, for they are devilishly
made by..............
“Inside the silver door you shall find the great rivers working
marvellously, and on the roof of the cave, which has been made smooth
with great labour, many stars shaped ........ precious stones. And
here will the Emperor be laid--he and his wives, and in a pit which we
have dug on either side shall be cast the ornaments of gold and
silver, and the jewels which he wore in his lifetime, and the jewels
also of his wives and of his blood relations.
“Let our memories be blessed by our children, that we have brought
fortune to them, and made them richer than kings, and given them
dominions greater than the provinces of the barbarians.”
Talham read these documents through twice, scribbling in his angular
writing a rough translation the first time and amending as he read it
again.