Censored—A Letter—An Oxford Version—Last Words from Ah Lum—A Rencontre—Debit and Credit—Schwab Sympathizes—Business—Partnership—Light in the East
"My word! And then—and then?"
"That's all, Monsieur Brin. The old junk sailed magnificently; with morning light we found ourselves off the Japanese coast, and three days later ran safe into the harbour of Hakodate. There's nothing more to tell. We spent several weeks in Japan among the plum-blossoms, and—here we are, in time to see this great meeting of the fleets."
Monsieur Brin and Jack Brown were among a party seated at dinner in the George Hotel, Portsmouth. The Browns had landed at Southampton two days before with Count Walewski and his daughter. They had been met by Mrs. Brown and her two other children, and had now come to Portsmouth to witness the festivities in connection with the visit of the French fleet. Monsieur Brin was at the same hotel, in the capacity of special reporter for the Soleil.
"But now, Monsieur," continued Jack, "I've told you all our adventures. What about yourself? What have you been doing since I saw you last at Harbin?"
"Ah! You ask! My friend, my history is in sum one word—Kaiser! You left me in Harbin: well, I devote care to Hildebrand Schwab; he recovers; we are both recalled, he because his negatives are all lost, I because when I describe the only battle I saw, my despatch is blacked out by the censor. Naturally my redacteur open his eyes when he must pay my bills for such as this. Look! Here is a leaf of my copy; that is what the Russian censor has done—and Russia, par exemple! is the ally of France. Behold!"
He took a leaf from his pocket-book, and laid it on the table. It appeared as follows:—
"Les Russes ont commencé aujourd'hui un ------------------ ------------------------------------ j'ai vu le général Kouropatkin qui buvait -------------------------------- -------------- 'Doucement bercé sur ma mule fringante,' je chevauchais à côté du général ---------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------- au même moment, psst! j'entends le sifflement d'un obus qui me va au----dessus de la tête éclater dans ------------------------------------------ ---------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------- des jambes, des bras, *disjecta membra*, comme dit le ---------------- ------------ plus loin, un médecin qui plonge ------------ -------------------------- et ---------------------------- -------------- la bataille."
"That is my account of a most dramatic episode of the battle of the Sha-ho. What is left? Nothing! It provoke curiosity, it tantalise, but does it satisfy, does it excite, hein?"
"The censor has certainly made a terrible hash of it," said Mr. Brown, passing the paper round the table. It created much amusement, and seemed to fascinate Jack's fifteen-year-old brother Humphrey, who gazed at it with a sort of awful admiration.
"But you spoke of Herr Schwab," said Jack. "What became of him?"
"He came——"
"By gum!" interrupted Humphrey, "don't I wish old Cæsar's despatches had been blacked out like this!"
Brin glanced at the boy over his glasses and resumed:
"Schwab came with me from Harbin by the same train. My word! it is Kaiser, Kaiser all the way. 'Our Kaiser who is in Berlin': I begin to think that is the German paternoster. I left Schwab at Vienna; he was going to sell his camera. He has a great admiration for you, Mr. Jack, but he is filled with regret that he never had an opportunity of doing business for Schlagintwert with that chief of brigands—how did he call himself?"
"Ah Lum. By the way, I forgot to tell you that when we landed at Southampton I found a letter awaiting me from him; it had been forwarded from Shanghai, and got here first owing to our little tour in Japan. It explains how Sowinski was able to reach Sakhalin."
He handed Ah Lum's letter to the Frenchman. Brin read it carefully, and with much gravity. It was as follows:—
From my camp above Tu-men-tzü,First Sunday after Trinity.
Honoured Sir,
A man's manners, says the Sage T'ai Ping-fu, are to be measured by his intentions. If therefore your servant, greatly deploring his ignorance of your honourable language, write through another hand, I pray you will not charge him with want of courtesy; does not the poet say "Respect is the corner-stone of friendship"? Nor will you, honoured sir, be other than indulgent if this letter should seem to have been unduly delayed in the writing. Even as a pearl is not to be found in every oyster, so is it rare among our literati to meet a scholar learned in the barbaric tongues. Such a one I have now discovered in the writer of this letter, Mr. Chang Fu-sing, whose late return from the august University at Oxford was duly reported by my agents at Ma-en-ho-kai. [Lincoln College: 3rd class Mods., aegrotat Mod. Hist. Chang Fu-sing, B.A. Oxon.] Him I secured by night for the trifling loss of five men. [My nose abraded; one eye bunged up. Ch. F.-s., B.A.Oxon.] Trifling, for rarity—and the need of the purchaser—are the true measures of value. To the starving man a crust outweighs a viceroy's ransom.
Since the auspicious day when your honour's never-to-be-forgotten assistance enabled our troops to reach the shelter of these mountains, the insolent Russians—may their graves be defiled!—[Idiom="Ruin seize thee!" Cf. Gray, "The Bard", i. 1. Ch. F.-s., B.A. Oxon.]—have not dared to molest your unworthy servant. For, as the ineffable T'ai Ping-fu says, the bird that has once escaped the net is hard indeed to snare. But, again, as Wang Wei reminds us to our profit in his Essay on Military Matters, small reverses, by inspiring caution, may benefit an army, even as small successes may lead through saucy confidence to humiliation. After a little affair otherwise unworthy of your august attention, the two prisoners, Bekovitch and Sowinski, were found to have absented themselves from our custody. As the proverb goes, Only a fool expects courtesy from a hog.
Yet, as Li T'ai-poh harmoniously says:
When stings the Bee, and Pain is keen, then shouldst thou think of Honey; Wise Men seek Good in every Ill, yea, e'en in Loss of Money.
[The versification is mine. Competitor: Newdigate Verse. Ch. F.-s., B.A. Oxon.] After consulting the works of Tu Fu, I found that, the sunshine of your honour's presence being withdrawn, it was allowable to return to our ancestral usages in matters relating to the treatment of prisoners and criminals. If in this my judgment was in error, I must beg your honour's clemency; for are we not taught by P'an T'ang-shên that in defending a friend from calumny all measures are laudable? It may suffice to say that some days before his escape, the Pole, kneeling on hot chains, was induced to confess his crimes; these were duly inscribed by him in the Russian tongue and signed. Thereafter his partner in guilt, who had shown more obduracy, even resisting our most approved means of persuasion, acknowledged his many wickednesses, among them the preparation of forged papers secretly introduced by a menial into the writing-cabinet of your honour's august father. True is it, as the Sage says, "Fear rather a faithless servant within the gates than a hundred enemies without", or, as the more homely proverb warns us, A worm at the root will bring the noblest oak to earth.
But calamity treads hard upon the heels of the wicked. Witness the fate of the Russian—may his posterity be cut off! [Idiom="A murrain on thee!" Cf. Shakespeare, "The Tempest", iii. 2. 88. Ch. F.-s., B.A. Oxon.] By sure hands your unworthy servant brought his confession beneath the eyes of the barbarian commander-in-chief. He is blind indeed who cannot see the length of his nose. My agents now inform me that the evil-doer is stripped of his offices, and of the emoluments thereto pertaining; as our saying goes, he has lost his buttons. His fellow-criminal has evaded my most diligent enquiries. But him also Justice pursues with sharpened sword, resting not by night neither by day.
Quantum suff. Though our lives be henceforth as two rivers flowing east and west, the recollection of past favours will be with me, honoured sir, as a plant in perennial bloom. What says P'an T'ang-shên?—"A man should find as much joy in the remembrance of a friend as though his worst enemy were to boil in oil."
My son, who is now under the tutorial charge of Mr. Chang Fu-sing—[purely honorary—no pay. Ch. F.-s., B.A. Oxon.]—adds, as in duty bound, his humble respects.
Permit me, honoured sir, to subscribe myself
Your most grateful obedient Servant,AH LUM.
P.S.—May I venture once more to commend the works of Li T'ai-poh to your august attention?
"Thanks!" said Brin, handing the letter back. "I am ver' much interested. The English is good, hein? In the idiom of Oxford? Permit me to make a copy for my book that will appear at early date, L'Ascension de la Chine."
Meanwhile Humphrey Brown had gone to the window, and stood with his hands in his pockets looking into the crowded street. A cab rattled up to the door of the hotel.
"I say," said Humphrey, "here's a funny old guy. Come and look, Agnes."
"I prefer to listen to the conversation," said Agnes, a self-possessed girl of thirteen.
"All right, grumps! But it would make you laugh. He's coming into the hotel. My eye!"
Not two minutes later the door opened, and there entered a portly figure in light-striped flannels; a pink cummerbund showing beneath the vest; gold-rimmed eyeglasses fixed somewhat awry on his broad nose. He stood at the door for a moment to choose his table.
"By George!" exclaimed Jack, springing up; "it's Schwab himself."
He went towards the door.
"Good-evening, Herr Schwab!" he said, holding out his hand.
The German turned and stared.
"Ach! I haf not ze honour, unless—who do you rebresent, sir?"
Jack smiled. Schwab instantly seized him by the hand.
"Du meine Güte! I abologize. I know you now. Nefer before did I see you in ze evenink dress. How are you, how are you, how are you?"
"Jolly glad to see you," said Jack. "Come and be introduced to my father, and mother, and the rest. You know Brin. We were talking of you only a minute ago."
The introductions were made. Humphrey turned away to hide his laughter at the German's elephantine bows.
"I abologize to ze ladies for my so unbecoming addire, but ven I egsblain zat I haf shust gome from ze station——"
"Say no more," said Mr. Brown. "Very unfortunate I couldn't meet you in Moukden, Mr. Schwab."
"Ach ja! Bermit me to ask, haf you seen ze evenink baber?"
"Not yet."
"Vell, I haf vun. I bought it at ze station; ze baber boys zey should be made to keep change. I haf only a benny, ze boy he haf no ha'bny—I muss vait five minutes till anozer gustomer arrive. Zat is not business. Ven I read ze baber, I see a baragraph vat I zink interess you. I read to you. 'It is announced from St. Betersburg zat ze rebresentations of ze British ambassador in regard to ze extraordinary case of Mr. Brown of Moukden haf at last been crowned viz success, and orders haf been issued for Mr. Brown's immediate release.' Zere is somezink I do not understan', since already Mr. Brown is here."
"Ah! You're not a diplomat, Mr. Schwab," said Mr. Brown, laughing. "It is a little funny to know that three months after my escape, and when Sakhalin is in possession of the Japanese, I am graciously permitted to regain my liberty."
Jack gave Herr Schwab a brief account of the final scenes of his quest.
"Zen for how much is your claim?" asked Schwab of Mr. Brown at the conclusion of the story.
"What claim?"
"Vy, your claim for gombensation—for intellectual and moral damage. Business are business. As business man, I advise downright zumping big claim."
"Well, Mr. Schwab, I've been turning over the matter, and really I think I'll let things alone. You see, Sowinski is dead, poor wretch! and Bekovitch is degraded, and if the account were properly adjusted, and Jack's damage to the Siberian railway put on the debit side, the balance might turn out against us after all."
"Ach! zat is anozer matter—ja! you muss gonsider ze balance-sheet. Zat is business."
"You are still in business?" said Jack.
"I am in business forever. It is ze bress of my nostrils. Vargorresbondencephotography, zat is not business; it do not bay egsbenses. I am now in beacephotography. I gome here, rebresentative of Schlagintwert, to make bicturebostcardphotographs of ze French and English entente. And zen I return to ze Baltic to make photograph of our Kaiser ven he velgome ze British fleet."
"Hé!" cried Brin with a chuckle. "Welcome! It must be snap-shot—prestissimo! When your Kaiser welcome the British fleet there will need a good camera, and exposure—one-millionth second. Ho! ho!"
Later in the evening Schwab took Jack confidentially aside.
"Mr. Brown, my frient, I have somezink to say. It has been gonfided to me zat you gondemblate a gondract."
"A contract, Herr Schwab?"
Schwab guffawed.
"Zat is my shoke—a madrimonial gondract."
"Who has been telling you that?"
"Ah, I haf it in gonfidence from your sister. Already is she a frient. She tell everybody in gonfidence."
"Then you can contradict it in confidence, Herr Schwab. There is no foundation—that is to say, nothing is settled."
Schwab looked sly.
"No, not settled, of course—but gondemblated."
"Really, Herr Schwab!——"
"Yes, yes, I understan'. Shust so. I also have affair of ze heart." He sighed deeply. "I can symbazise. But viz me it is different. You are lucky dog—ze Fräulein Walewska is kind; vile I am in ze depss of desbair: Madame Bottle—ach, she is gruel. I sigh, she smile; I groan, she laugh; I even make bresentation, she decline vizout zanks. Ah! Mr. Brown, you do not know vat it is to be gross in lov."
Jack looked as sympathetic as he could, while Herr Schwab, laying his hand lightly on his waistcoat-buttons, continued lugubriously:
"Ach, truly it is a terrible zink to lov vizout return. It break ze heart; it shpoil ze digestion;—it is bad for business. No longer can I gif sole attention to ze interest of Schlagintwert. Vy, it is only a few days since I take order from Robinson & Robinson in London; yesterday Schlagintwert return ze order. Vat haf I written?—'Subbly Mrs. Bottle, 68 Crutched Friars, London, 50 casks botato shbirit, last quotation, f.o.b. Hamburg.' Zere is fipence vaste in bostages. Zat show you!"
"Yes, very amusing," said Jack absently. Gabriele had just come in with Mrs. Brown, and Jack was on thorns lest the German's by no means gentle voice should reach the ladies.
"Amusink!" cried Schwab. "Schlagintwert do not see ze shoke. Vy——"
"Of course, I meant annoying. But, Herr Schwab, if you will——"
"Yes, yes," said Schwab, noticing how Jack's eyes strayed to the other end of the room, and how he fidgeted with his watch-chain. "Yes, I see. Only vun moment, Mr. Brown. Ze business I shboke of. Already I mention it to ze young lady——"
"Upon my word, Herr Schwab!—
"Vait, I egsblain. Zere is nozink fix—not nozink at all. Ze Fräulein vill say nozink. She blush; zen she ask me to tell her about my ancestor, Hildebrand Suobensius. But zis is business."
"Well, what is it, Herr Schwab?"
"It is an obbortunity—an obbortunity for Schlagintwert and for yourself. Our firma establish a new branch—bon-bons, gonfectionery. Zey vish to open accounts in zis gountry: you understan'?"
"Understand?—what?"
"Vy, zis—here is ze obbortunity. Schlagintwert zey require advertisement: zey shall make you ze vedding-gake—costprice!"
About six weeks later, Mr. Brown was looking over his copy of the Shanghai Mercury which had come by the morning post.
"Here, Jack," he said, "this paragraph will interest you."
Jack took the paper, and read:
"One of the results of the treaty of peace recently signed between Russia and Japan is that the famous brigand, Ah Lum, has been summoned to Pekin. The military ability he displayed in his operations in northern Manchuria has been recognized by his appointment to a high post in the Board of Civil Office."
There is shortly to be started, in Hong-Kong, a new firm of produce brokers under the style of Brown, Son, & Co. Brown we know; Son we know; Co. at present consists of Mr. Hi An-tzu. Whether it will by and by include Mr. Hi Lo-ch'u depends on that young man's business aptitude: Son thinks it very probable. Brown is to be the sleeping, or as he prefers to put it, the consulting partner. Son will manage the London house; while Mr. Hi in Hong-Kong will open accounts with respectable Manchurian farmers, of whom one will undoubtedly be Mr. Wang.
Some of Brown's friends took him to task for lifting his former compradore from his lowly station to the equality of partnership. To their remonstrance Brown replied with a morsel of political philosophy.
"It's all very well," he said, "to sneer at the 'heathen Chinee', and look upon him as fit for nothing better than to smoke your opium and do your work in South African mines. Believe me, John Chinaman is not so very heathen; and he is waking up: and when he does move he will hustle. For myself, I prefer a colleague to a competitor."
What Brown thinks to-day his business friends generally think to-morrow.
Glossary
C=Chinese, P=Pidgin-English, R=Russian. The Chinese substitute l for r, and add the terminations -ee, -um, and -lo to many words.
ach (R), oh, ah.
allo (P), all, every.
artel (R), a society of workers formed on co-operative principles.
barin (R), lord, gentleman.
batiushki (R) = By Jove!
belongey (P), often equivalent simply to the verb to be.
bimeby (P), by and by, afterwards.
bobbely (P), noise, uproar.
bottom-side (P), down, below.
bozhe moï (R), good heavens!
cash (C), small copper coins carried on strings.
catchee (P), to get, have.
ch'hoy (P), an exclamation.
chop-chop (P), quickly.
chow-chow (P), food.
Chunchuse (more strictly Hunhutze: C), literally red-beard: the name given to the organized bandits of Manchuria.
compradore (Portuguese), superintendent of a European's native staff.
da (R), an exclamation; literally "yes!"
droshky (R), single-horse carriage.
dushenka (R), little soul: a term of endearment.
-ee, a pidgin-English termination.
eka (R), an exclamation: "there now!"
Fa-lan-sai (P), French.
fangtse (C), cottage.
fan-kwei (C), foreign devil.
fan-tan (C), a game: the players stake on the remainder when an unknown number of cash is divided by 4.
fan-yun (C), foreigner.
feng-shui (C), the geomantic influences of the earth, determining the luckiness or unluckiness of places.
first-chop (P), best, excellently.
flend (P), friend.
fo' (P), four, for.
folin (P), foreign.
galaw (P), a common exclamation.
gorodovoi (R), policeman.
gospodin (R), sir.
gráf (R), count
he (P), he, she, it, they, him, her.
Ingoua (C), English.
kopeck (R), silver or copper coin: 100 kopecks make 1 rouble.
kow-tow (P), to bow humbly.
li (C), a Chinese mile: about one-third of an English mile.
ling-ch'ih (C), capital punishment by slicing.
littee (P), little.
look-see (P), look, examine.
lowdah (P), captain of a junk.
Lusski (P), Russian.
mafoo (C), groom.
makee (P), make, do.
Melican (P), American.
moujik (R), peasant.
muchee (P), very.
my (P), I, me, my, mine.
nichalnik (R), station-master.
no can do (P), cannot.
nu (R), well!
numpa (P), number: numpa one, first-rate.
och (R), oh!
one-tim' (P), once.
ph'ho (C), an exclamation.
pidgin (P), business: pidgin-English, English as spoken by Chinese at the ports.
piecee (P), used with numerals: one piecee man=a or one man.
ping-ch'wahn (C), gunboat.
plopa (P), proper: allo plopa, all right.
rouble (R), the standard money (paper) of Russia: ten roubles=a British sovereign.
samovar (R), tea-urn.
sampan (C), a Chinese punt.
savvy (P), know, understand.
side (P), place, direction: this-side, here; that-side, there; what-side, where.
so-fashion (P), in that way.
suttingly (P), certainly.
tael (C), a coin (rarely seen) worth 6s. 6d.
that-side (P), there.
that-tim' (P), then.
this-side (P), here, hither.
tim' (P), time.
tinkee (P), think.
Toitsche (P), i.e. Deutsche, German.
too (P), very.
topside (P), above, superior; in the head.
troika (R), three-horsed vehicle.
verst (R), two-thirds of English mile.
vodka (R), brandy made of barley.
wailo (P), away, to go away, run away.
wantchee (P), to want.
what-for (P), why.
what-side (P), where.
what-tim' (P), when.
yamen (C), mandarin's residence and office: yamen-runners, equivalent to English bailiffs, but a very inferior class.
yinkelis (P), English.
* * * * * * * *
The Light Brigade
in Spain
or
The Last Fight of Sir John Moore
By Herbert Strang
Author of "Tom Burnaby," etc.
With a Preface by Lieut.-Col. WILLOUGHBY VERNER.
Illustrated by William Rainey, R.I. 12mo. $1.50
"In 'Boys of the Light Brigade' Mr. Strang draws upon the resources of the Peninsular War, and succeeds in extracting much freshness from well-worn themes, as Moore's retreat to Corunna and the heroic defence of Saragossa. The personal interest of the story is kept at a high tension.... It is a book which no boy will be able to put down when once started. The volume is provided with excellent maps and plans of the scenes in which the incidents take place."—The Standard.
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"The author describes graphically with truth to history the last fight of the British commander, Sir John Moore. It is a stirring military story in the manner of those written by the late George A. Henty, but really with more authenticity."—Philadelphia Press.
"An interesting story, with extra good measure in its incidents and character ... and with some pretty little love passages."—Cleveland Leader.
KOBO
Story of the Russo-Japanese War
By HERBERT STRANG
Author of "The Light Brigade in Spain," etc.
Illustrated by William Rainey, R.I. 12mo, $1.50
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The Adventures
of
Harry Rochester
A Tale of the Days of
Marlborough and Eugene
By
HERBERT STRANG
Author of "Kobo," "Light Brigade in Spain," etc.
Illustrated by William Rainey, R.I. 12mo. $1.50
"A story full of thrilling adventure."—Newark Advertiser.
"Mr. Strang is a follower of Henty in writing adventurous historical romances for boys, and does his work with even more spirit and vim. This tale gives a good picture of the wars of Marlborough and William of Holland against the French, with a clever and courageous boy hero."—Congregationalist and Christian World.
"Three such successes as Mr. Strang has now achieved definitely establish his position and should fully reassure those who despondingly wondered when and where a worthy successor to Mr. Henty would appear."—Glasgow Herald.
"Mr. Henty's mantle may worthily be worn by Mr. Herbert Strang."—Truth.
"Told with a dash and vigor which mark him as Henty's natural successor."—Notts Guardian.
By ELBRIDGE S. BROOKS
Historic Boys. Their Endeavors, Their Achievements and Their Times. With 29 full-page illustrations. 8vo, pp. viii + 259.
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Chivalric Days and Youthful Deeds. Stirring Stories, presenting faithful pictures of historic times. Illustrated, 8vo. $1.25
Heroic Happenings. Told in Verse and Story. Illustrated, 8vo. $1.25
Great Men's Sons. Stories of the Sons of Great Men from Socrates to Napoleon. Fully illustrated, 8vo. $1.25
Including the Sons of Socrates, Alexander, Cicero, Marcus Aurelius, Mahomet, Charlemagne, Alfred, William the Conqueror, Saladin, Dante, Tamerlane, Columbus, Luther, Shakespeare, Cromwell, Peter the Great, Napoleon.
The Long Walls. An American Boy's Adventures in Greece. A Story of Digging and Discovery, Temples and Treasures. By E. S. Brooks and John Alden. Illustrated by George Foster Barnes. 8vo. $1.25
New York—G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS—London
By HERBERT STRANG
The Adventures of Harry Rochester: A Tale of the Days of Marlborough and Eugene.
The Light Brigade in Spain; or, The Last Fight of Sir John Moore.
Kobo. A Story of the Russo-Japanese War.
Brown of Moukden. A Story of the Russo-Japanese War.