X
"It was cleverly planned, from what I can gather," said Smith.
He sat beside the couch of Ardzrouni at daylight, breakfasting. Major Wemyss and Florence were with them.
"Obviously, Liu Ku had arranged to assassinate the son of heaven, and you two white people as well—together with all the nobles who could be caught in the hall of audience. At the same moment the guards at the gates were being cut down by their treacherous companions, and the gates were opened to the rabble. Thanks to Colonel Chou, things did not go off quite as planned!"
Ardzrouni smiled faintly. He had slept well and, except for his pallor, looked as usual; nor was his wound, thanks to the bandaging of Florence, in bad shape.
"When will the show begin?" be asked.
"In about an hour, I imagine—as soon as Liu Ku can get his forces reorganized. So far we've had nothing but sniping; today will come the massacre," answered Smith coolly. "By the way, what about getting a treaty signed?"
He lighted his pipe, having received a smiling nod from Florence, and regarded Ardzrouni in his quiet, confident manner.
"You're the de facto ruler here," he went on. "I'm perfectly willing to make the right kind of a treaty with you, and to extend the protection of the French."
Ardzrouni burst into an irrepressible fit of laughter.
"By the eagle, you are magnificent!" he cried. "You should have been in my place, Smith! Well, I have been thinking about that treaty; I have thought often about it. I believe I can draw up a document that will be satisfactory all around,"
Smith rose.
"Very well! I'll send you in a scribe, if I can find one in the mob. Now I'll have to be taking a look-see around the place, I agreed to relieve Chou at daybreak—the poor chap is about done up. And," he added, with a glance at the others, "you need tell me nothing about how you came to occupy the throne here—just yet. Let us wait until we have signed the treaty—you understand?"
He left the room.
Wemyss followed, as far as the adjoining chamber. There he paused. The archers who had fetched his rifles had also brought everything else on which they could lay hands. With an exclamation of satisfaction, Wemyss opened a bundled mat and found his opium-smoking outfit intact. He fell to work over the little lamp, chuckling with delight.
"Liu Ku said that gold and jade were unlucky," he muttered. "Egad, I'm inclined to think just the opposite!"
He would have altered his opinion had he followed Smith.
The latter, taking over charge of the place from the exhausted Chou, perceived at once why the crafty eunuch had launched no attack. Within the compound were more than a hundred men, all archers and nobles, and the rooms of the palace itself were crowded with women and children of the nobles. For all of these there was no more food than would last a day.
As regarded actual defense, the outlook was still more hopeless. Aside from firearms, there was no lack of weapons; but on two sides the place was absolutely commanded from the roofs of the main palace, which were beyond arrow shot. Numbers of the enemy were already massing on these roofs.
Smith, finding two of the nobles who were skilled in calligraphy and spoke French, sent them in to Ardzrouni, and turned his attention to the enemy. So far as he could tell, Liu Ku was in absolute command of Ngongfu. Perfect order seemed to be maintained at the main palace and in the inner city.
Sending Ninh Bang with a request that Wemyss should bring out his rifles. Smith was mildly astonished when Wemyss appeared. "The man seemed perfectly cool and unruffled. Smith perceived the reason when he caught a breath of sweetish poppy, but made no comment.
"You and I," he said, taking one of the two rifles, "must clear those roofs yonder. We've no bullets to waste. Those chaps are going to open fire in a moment. Liu Ku probably intends to force an immediate surrender. Settle down, Wemyss, and pick 'em off!"
Having disposed his own force, Smith sought a corner nook of the wall, and opened fire. A moment later, Wemyss joined in.
From the palace roofs there came an answering storm of slugs and bullets, as rifles and muskets banged away. Only for a minute or two, however. Those two rifles, speaking with perfect precision, dropped man after man. From the compound went up yells of delight when the enemy hastily abandoned their position.
Smith rejoined Major Wemyss.
"Nice brisk work—what. Smith?"
"Very! How long do you think we can hold out?"
Wemyss lifted his sardonic brows.
"About an hour, I fancy, when once a real attack is made. The fat eunuch is nobody's fool, however. If his men let him alone, he'll starve us."
Smith nodded. Wemyss touched his arm, and pointed across the compound toward the buildings of the inner city. A body of spearmen were on the march; in their midst was a golden palanquin.
"There's Liu Ku now," said Wemyss. "He'll circle through the gardens safely and reach the palace from the other side. That is the royal palanquin, by the way. When he gets established in the palace, he'll send us an offer to treat, eh?"
Smith nodded again.
"Want to get out, Wemyss? If he'll let you and your daughter—"
"Not at all," returned the other calmly. "You can look after her, you know—French representative and all that. About me, no matter. I'd rather like to go west in a row of this sort, upon my word!"
Smith perceived that the man was in earnest, and repressed his smile.
"Very well! Call me if a flag of truce shows up. I'll be with Ardzrouni."
He entered the building where Ardzrouni lay. To his astonishment, he found the latter sitting in a chair and smoking a cigarette. Ardzrouni was devoid of all his regal panoply, and wore the faded khaki in which Smith had first seen him. He greeted the American with a smile.
"Excellent work, Smith! You cleared those roofs finely. Congratulations!"
Smith dropped into a chair and lighted his pipe. He glanced at Florence Wemyss, and then at the two nobles who were busily brushing characters on paper. Ardzrouni took a sheet which lay under his hand and extended it to the American.
"There's the French draft. Miss Wemyss and I wrote it out; then our friends here set to work putting it into their own tongue."
Smith settled back in the chair, and began to read. His surprise was complete. Not only did Ardzrouni abdicate, but he stipulated that the throne was to be occupied by Colonel Chou. Added to this were a number of provisions which caused Smith's eyes to open widely.
"Ardzrouni, you're in earnest about this?" he said, looking up. "Think it over! The chances for winning may be better than you imagine. Besides, I have no intention of forcing you out."
That sad smile flitted across the face of the dark man.
"My friend, for me the dream is ended, and realities have begun. I have had my little fling; I am through."
"Win, lose, or draw?"
Ardzrouni chuckled, and nodded assent.
"But this about the gold—"
"There's a building full of the stuff," said Ardzrouni. "Besides, more can be had for the taking. It comes from a river in the royal hunting preserves, I've discovered—free alluvial gold. They kept it secret from the former resident. I'm revealing the secret on the conditions laid down in that treaty."
Smith picked up the paper and read it over again, frowning.
"H-m! Two-thirds of all mineral wealth exploited to be used for building of roads—installation of sanitary arrangements in Ngongfu—establishment of schools! Look here, Ardzrouni—your friend Chou may not agree to all this limitation of loot."
"Have no fears about Chou," said the other coolly. "He is no looter. Besides, you will observe that there is a clause providing for a French territorial force to be held here to keep order—for which the treasury pays. In other words, the little on of heaven here is reduced to the status of the other divine sons whom France has displaced; but the throne is guaranteed to him. And, my friend, any throne which is guaranteed in these days of rampant democracy is worth having! I, Ardzrouni, can verify that fact!"
Smith grinned.
"Right! I agree to this. Suppose we call Chou and the chief nobles? If they sign it, I will accept the treaty."
Ardzrouni nodded.
Ten minutes later Colonel Chou and a dozen of the most prominent nobles, who were in the compound, were crowded into the room. They listened without comment to the reading of the treaty; but when they heard the clause of Ardzrouni's abdication and the provision for his successor, Chou was the first to make objection. His protest was sincere and without equivocation.
"We are loyal to you, son of heaven!" he concluded. "Call down your father the eagle, and smite these rebels! As for us, we serve you and you alone."
This was Smith's first inkling of the supposed supernatural powers of Ardzrouni. In a whispered aside, Florence Wemyss explained the matter to him, whereat he grimaced and then broke into a laugh. Meanwhile Ardzrouni spoke to the nobles.
"I shall leave here," he said, "as soon as this rebellion is quieted; until then, I remain. Protest is useless, my friends. The son of heaven does not change his mind. Colonel Chou, I appoint you my successor, and adopt you as my son."
And to this Chou eventually assented.
There was no objection to the other clauses of the treaty. Such of the nobles as had seals in their possession affixed them; the others brushed in their names and titles. Since the majority of the mandarin's council were here, the treaty was entirely legal.
Smith signed on behalf of the governor general, and it was done.
As Smith's brush left the paper, one of his Tais hunters entered the room hurriedly, with word that a flag of truce had come from Liu Ku. Ardzrouni ordered that the messengers should be admitted. They proved to be a noble and an officer of the guards. Before they could deliver any message, however, Ardzrouni signed to Smith.
"Tell them to go to the devil," he said abruptly, a flood of passion in his face. "If I talk to the dogs, I shall want to take them by the throat!"
Smith addressed the two envoys in their own tongue, much to their surprise.
"Go back to your master," he said curtly. "Tell him that the son of heaven is under the protection of France, and that he refuses to talk with rebellious traitors. On only one condition will we treat—on condition that Liu Ku shall come and prostrate himself in submission before his master, for punishment."
With this the envoys were sent out again, and there was great applause. Smith, ripping open the lining of his coat, drew forth a folded silk, shook it out, and displayed the French tricolor. He handed it to Chou.
"Place this flag of France above the building," he said gravely.
So it was done.
The day dragged its weary length, with no sign of attack. The defenders were in eager spirits, looking at each moment for Ardzrouni to perform his promised miracle and bring his eagle from the skies. The eunuch's forces, on the other hand, seemed to be in no little commotion.
Toward the middle of the afternoon Smith observed that troops were occupying the walls and the inner city, while others were marching into the outer city. Shortly after this, the sound of heavy firing reached the defenders. Ardzrouni was first to grasp the cause.
"The soldiers who were called in from the watchtowers!" he exclaimed. "They are attacking Liu Ku's men!"
"That is your last hope?" asked Smith, with a curious smile.
Ardzrouni sat back in his chair.
"That is our only hope," he said gravely. "If it fails, we are lost!"
In half an hour it was evident that the attack had failed. Liu Ku's troops came streaming back toward the palace, victorious. The beating of gongs, the mad firing of muskets, proclaimed their triumph. Chou and his nobles, fortunately, did not realize that Ardzrouni had no hope left.
That evening the last of the food was shared.
During the hours of night. Smith was summoned by Colonel Chou, to find a most singular state of affairs. A number of the rebel nobles and officers had come to the compound to present their submission to Ardzrouni; among them were several of the chief men who had clung to Liu Ku.
Suspicious and astonished, Smith inquired into their reasons for thus deserting the eunuch, for he dreaded a trap. He found that among the enemy had spread not only the prediction that the son of heaven would bring down his eagle to smite Liu Ku, but also a report that the envoys had seen Ardzrouni apparently unwounded. This latter fact was accounted a miracle.
Despite their success, the chiefs of the rebels had come to submit—hastened, perhaps, by the fact that a French resident was now at the side of Ardzrouni. What was much more to the point, these folk bore news that Liu Ku meant to attack the compound at dawn.
Smith kept all this to himself, smiling grimly as he sought his own couch again. The ironic paradox of it was both amusing and tragic. One earnest attack would mean the end—yet these yellow folk were deserting the winner in expectation of miracles!
At dawn Liu Ku attacked.