A Swallow's Wing. A tale of Pekin

Front matter

A TALE OF PEKIN. BY CHARLES HANNAN. LONDON : SWAN SONNENSCHEIN, LOWREY & CO, PATERNOSTER SQUARE. 1888. In the chain of life there are many links ; and those which seem weak, even to break ing, may yet sustain the whole. To the Right Honourable the Earl of Mv Lord, It is my custom to Avrite freely, and you, for one, are not amongst those Avho Avould deprive me of the liberty of my pen. It is some months since you confided to me that por tion of your diary Avhich deals Avith your quest in the East, and I openly admit that I Avas at that time by no means enamoured of the gift. You Avill pardon my frankness in stating the truth. You, my lord, have neA'er been subjected to the life of persecution AA-hich the fiction-Avriter must accept as his own. Diaries are thrust upon him from all sides : plots thicken around him ; and anecdotes innumerable are related in his presence, that he may haply include them in some tale.

It Avas, therefore, more Avith the feeling of idle curiosity than Avith the idea of utilising your Avork that I cast my eyes over your lines ; more Avith the desire of noting the impressions you had formed of Eastern lands, familiar to me from the travels of my youth, than to glean from the perusal stolen thoughts. I have your permission, my lord, to revise and pub lish your diary as I see fit ; but the Avorld is so over- Whelmed Avith Avorks of travel, that I have rather decided I B to extract the interest from your Avork in my OAvn way ; and Avhilst adhering only in part to the Avording of your diary, I shall still accompany you throughout, to be with you in heart amidst scenes which you and I have looked upon, under circumstances strangely differing, in the years gone by. And, lastly, as the tale Avith which you have entrusted me is familiar only to a feAV, I shall cover your identity with the cloak of fiction.

You shall figure as a com moner, in place of a lord ; for as it is the custom of the novel-writer to make a commoner a peer, so I, from perversity, take a malicious pleasure in reversing the order of things and taking my revenge upon you. I have the honour to be, my Lord, Your Lordship's most obedient servant,

Chapter I

Brussels, April 22nd.— A curious thing occurred this evening. I Avas seated in the verandah, for the day had been more than usually Avarm for this season of the year, Avhen my eye was attracted by a little bird that alighted first upon the parapet and then, in a moment or two, almost at my feet. It Avas a swallow, and appeared to me to be in a sorry plight, and worn out either by old age or lengthy travel ; for its Aving drooped upon the ground, and its eyes were half closed in Aveariness. I reached out my hand, and the SAvalloAV, making no movement, became my captive. I Avas endeavouring to ascertain if it Avas AArounded, or hoAv othenvise the bird came to be in such a condition, Avhen my glance fell upon Avhat I discovered to be a fragment of paper, closely and firmly bound Avith thread around its leg.

" Here," I said to myself, " is an adventure : this SAvalloAV does not come to me by chance alone ; " and thus thinking — for I confess I am of asomeAvhat romantic turn of mind, and that curiosity at once overcame me — I took my penknife and cut the threads — an operation of no small difficulty, as the bird struggled till the remainder of its strength evaporated, and the missive, of Avhatever nature it might prove, Avas so closely and tightly AAround, that there Avas the greatest danger of injuring the slender limb round which it had been secured. Having finally succeeded, I Avrapped the bird in my handkerchief, that it might not escape ; and, proceeding to examine the fragments Avhich I had detached, I found that I held in my hand Avhat Avas evidently a small and torn paper, ragged and destroyed, partly perhaps from the attempts of the SAvalloAV to tear it from its limb, partly perhaps by the Avear and tear of time.

Unfolding the fragments Avith great care, and piecing them together, I Avas delighted to discover that my momentary expectation had not led me far astray, and that the paper Avas actually covered Avith certain Avords Avritten or rather scratched thereon, apparently in dark red ink. In all, the paper cannot have been more than an inch square, Avhich yet contained in a small and clear handAvriting — that of an Englishman — sufficient to give me a clue to solloAv, Avere I ready to accept the mission noAv strangely brought before me : E— a message borne by a SAvalloAv's Aving from far beyond the seas. After prolonged scrutiny, and the attempt to fill in such Avords as were missing, I made out the folloAving to be the writing : — * God's name rescue * * * Lose no time * * * prison * * In the * * * * * * * us * Pekin By the Chin * * * Tenth swallow William Norris September * * * * * * * God help * * * * * * Thus the centre part, Avhich, from the folding, had come to be as it Avere a corner, and Avhich evidently contained the full information necessary to explain the Avhole, Avas Avanting.

But the meaning of the missive was in a sense clear, although there Avere some points upon Avhich I Avas unable to form a judgment. I shall point out what I mean, by repeating the AvordsAvith the simple filling up of such gaps as may be easily treated, thus : — In God's name rescue (me or us) Lose no time (we or I) (am or are) prisoner (or s) In the us in Pekin By the Chin (ese) Tenth swallow William Norris September (year and date missing) May God help (me or us). Thus the chief gap, Avhich is the most important of the whole, lies in the third line. It is evident that some name is omitted. But what name ? I have endeavoured to fill up by judging the length of the line, and by insert ing the Avord "find" or "seek "before the final "us" thus : — In the seek us in Pekin ; but beyond this I cannot go.

A Swalloza's Wing. a 5 My sensations, upon discovering the nature of the communication which had fallen into my hands by the strangest of coincidences, are beyond description. I Avas at once overpoAvered by Avonder and a sense of the supernatural, and inflamed Avith the first birth of the desire to investigate and solloAv the matter to the end. Looking more clearly upon the coincidence, as I noAv do some hours later, I am the more determined to carry out my part of the chain of destiny — a destiny ofAA'hich the SAvalloAV, perhaps for many a year, perhaps only for months, has borne its share. One of my felloAvs (perhaps more than one) has been, and it may be still is, confined by the Chinese, for some reason unknoAA'n, someAvhere in or near Pekin. And of the messages Avhich he has entrusted to many birds, as I gather from the Avords " tenth SAvalloAA'," one at least has reached its destination — the hand of a brother-man.

I am young, Avealthy, and free, and I accept the trust that has been thus strangely given to me ; and if you are alive, William Norris, I shall come to you, ay, even at the risk of my own life. I have longed for adventure, and the opportunity has come — an opportunity Avhich no one could have fore seen. Brussels, April 2yd. — The SAvalloAV died this morning. It appeared to be an old bird ; but Avhether it be that it Avas so Avhen this man in China attached the paper to its limb, or Avhether it has groAvn so during years in Avhich it has flitted over the earth as the prisoner's mes senger, I cannot tell. Was this message Avritten years or months ago? I would give much to learn the date. Brave bird ! Avhat fate brought you here to die ? What A Szval/ozu's Wing. can have brought you to me from a land thousands of miles aAvay, unless the guiding poAver of the God above ?

I have hopes, William Norris, that your message has not come too late. This morning I telegraphed to my oldest friend — the very man to go Avith me on an adven ture or excursion of this kind. I have his reply before me now : " Wait a month ; impossible sooner. Will go to the end of the world Avith you then." I cannot Avait a month. Every day is an eternity to William Norris. I shall go alone. My intention, therefore, is to goto Pekin, and to find this man, Avherever he may be, either by a prolonged search or by some miraculous intervention Avhich shall enable me to fill in the missing words. Who Avould have thought, tAvo days ago, that I, Herbert Vanscombe, should have made up my mind (one usually of the dilatory order) to set off upon a feAV hours' notice for the far-distant East ? In four days I shall be on board the Messageries steamer, at Marseilles, and, if all be Avell, I calculate on being in Pekin within tAvo months and a half from noAv.

A considerable journey for a lazy traveller who has never done more than lounge about the Continental tOAvns ! Well, it could not have occurred at a more fortunate time. It gives me an object in life, at a time Avhen I am sick of frivolity and cannot bear the idea of a London season. I believe I should feel almost disappointed were any one to assure me noAv that William Norris has been dead for years ; or Avere Norris himself to arrive in person to inform me that he had escaped. Hoav selfish is the nature of man ! Were William Norris not a prisoner of the Chinese and at their mercy, my journey Avould have lost its zest, and the spirit of adventure would be gone. It is difficult for a man to be honest to himself in thought. En route eastwards to Pekin. — Life becomes a dull monotony at sea.

There is nothing all around but the glassy Avave and the unchanging blue of a heaven Avhite Avith gazing at its OAvn loveliness. Occa sionally a flying-fish or tAvo will rise, and as SAviftly disappear ; else there is nothing but the regular beat of the engines, and the motion of the screAv, and the silence of repose only beneath the aAvning that stretches o'er the deck. And thus it is, day after day, till one groAvs Aveary ot the sameness of every hour. It is only in after-years that the mind recalls these heavily delicious hours Avith a longing that they might be born anew. I Avill pass over the days Avhich Avere doubly, nay, trebly long to me, in that my impatience urged me on ; and I will put aside the sense of aching pain Avhich recurred to me AA'hen my mind recalled the quest upon Avhich I AA^as set, and Avhen I realised that I Avas poAver less and could do nothing for Aveeks to come.

A feAV weeks have made a difference to me. At the first blush I took the SAvalloAv's message as it came, as a coincidence — no more. I did not then realise hoAv a felloAv man's life may lie in my hands, that I may save himi or leave him like a dog to die. I did not then accept the SAvalloAv's message so truly and deeply as I have done noAv. After many, many days at sea — days longer to me, I suppose, than to any on board — I found myself at Shanghai — Shanghai, Avith its fine bund and its boule vard — the Paris of the East ! I spent several days there, for the chief reason that I was obliged to Avait for a steamer to the North ; but I did not count the time as Avasted, for I had inquiries to make as to the man in search of Avhom I had come, and of Avhom I had been able to learn nothing in Hong Kong.

It Avas but a chance that I came across his name, even in Shanghai. My banker's introductions, Avhich I had received by post at Suez, Avere useful in one sense, but practically useless as regards the end in vieAv. Without giving anyone the clue as to the object of my journey, I made inquiries everywhere as to the man whose missive I had so strangely received. No one knew him, even by name. This I Avas at a loss to understand, because, to reach Pekin, it was almost a necessity that he should have passed through Shanghai. I pondered much upon the subject, and came to the conclusion that the feAV Avords Avhich I had carefully preserved must have been Avritten many years ago, since no one could recollect having met or heard of the Avriter, or that he might have passed so rapidly through Shanghai as to leave no trace of his movements behind.

It then occurred to me to examine the guests' book at the hotel. I took it in my hand and opened it casually almost in despair of its proving of any avail. I started involuntarily as my eye fell upon the pa<re. By chance the book had opened at a date nearly a year previous and before me Avas this entry : — " William Norris, from Nagaski, arrived 5th August ; left for Pekin and Great Wall, 6th August." So there Avas a fair chance that I might be still in time ! Further than this I could learn nothing. They remembered Norris in the hotel — a tall gentleman, dark, and Avearing a slight moustache. Had he ever returned ? Perhaps ; but he might have gone to a friend's house or to the Club : he had not come to the hotel. And I alone knew the truth, that he Avas a prisoner of the nation for whom I had already conceived a hatred of the strongest kind — a nation Avhich filled me Avith a sense of loathing, and from Avhich my inmost nature shrank.

One thing Avas noAv made clear to me — that William Norris might still be saved. I had never doubted of his existence. That had not struck me, strange as it may seem. I believed in his call for aid, and I Avas right. But — shall I confess it ? — I had begun to despair Avhen, first in Hong Kong, and then in Shanghai, I had been unable to discover any trace of him of Avhom I Avas in search ; for I feared that the message might have been of such an ancient date that William Norris had succumbed already, perhaps, to a life of torture or to a lengthened imprisonment amongst his Chinese foes. And now that I knew otherwise, my desire to save him only greAv the stronger, since I perceived there was a chance. And often I Avondered for what reason he had been seized : was it because of hatred for the European race upon the part of the Chinese ; or had he desecrated some religious rites, or in what manner offended his cold-blooded foes ?

On the day which remained before my departure for the North I lessened my baggage as far as possible, by the packing of all that I absolutely required in a single portmanteau and the committal of the remainder to the charge of the hotel. I Avas well armed, for I knew not what casualty might occur ; indeed, I may say that, in addition to my OAvn revolver, I had three others, thus alloAving, in case of need, for one apiece for three men, English or Chinese, and, though it Avas probable that these Avould prove merely superfluous baggage, I had deemed it well rather to be over-equipped than the reverse. Further than this, I had two strong knives, of the nature of daggers; so that it will be seen that, in leaving Brussels, I had done so not unprepared for the worst, if the Avorst should come. There Avere tAvo young felloAvs in Shanghai whom I had met, upon the first evening of my arrival, at the house of my banker, Avith whom I had dined.

They Avere brothers ; their names Frederick and James Dicey ; and I took a liking to them from the first. I decided to put before these men the particulars of the expedition upon which I Avas engaged, and accord ingly I invited them to dine Avith me upon my last evening ashore. I sent the boy from the room as soon as dinner was at an end, and then narrated to the two the incident of Avhich you have already learned, as the cause of my presence in Shanghai. " You are both," I concluded, " men Avhom I feel that I can trust. One has a strange feeling, which is not exactly fear, and still something very closely akin, upon launch ing out alone on a venture of this kind. I may tell you plainly that I expect to be in Shanghai again within three months, accompanied by William Norris, for this reason, that the chain of fate, Avhich brought the SAvalloAV with its message across the seas, will miss a link or two if I succumb to the death I may have to face.

But, all the same, I am prepared to die, and ready to do so, unless I succeed in escaping from the Chinese in company Avith William Norris." Neither of the tAvo ansAvered me. I think, as men, they Avere touched Avith something of the same sorroAv as had fallen upon me. I relit my cigar. " If you hear nothing of me in three months' time," I continued, endeavouring to lighten my tone, " will you make it public in Shanghai that two of your brother- Englishmen have disappeared in the North ? Will you make a movement, no matter Avhether he and I be dead or alive, to seek us out ? Will you do something for us here in Shanghai?" — in spite of myself, my voice Avas thick. " We will," came the ansAA-er, as with one voice ; and then Frederick, the elder, inquired, after a pause : " Can Ave not help you now ?

What is it you Avish to be done ? " " I Avish nothing," I replied, "until you hear from me, or until three months have passed without Avord. Stay, there is one thing. I Avish a boy Avho will act as my guide, Avho knoAvs pigeon-English Avell (I'll manage Avith him somehoAv), and Avho knoAvs Pekin. Can either of you pro cure me this? Do not think I run him into danger : if he is my guide, that is all ; his Chinese skin protects him, for the rest. Can I find such a man to-night in Shanghai, or shall I find him at Tientsin ? " " The remuneration must be large," said the elder. " That is nothing : he may name his sum." He rose, and summoning the boy, gave him instructions to find me a guide. " Savey ? " he said in conclusion. " My can savey," came the ansAver; "chop-chop can do." " Then you Avish us," he continued, reseating himself, " to keep silence in the meantime regarding your journey?"

" I do." " Is it necessary ? Would it not be better to stir the colony noAv, if it is true, as I have little doubt, that this man is still kept a prisoner? There is many a man in Shanghai Avho Avould join you." " I have little doubt of it,and,indeed, I have considered," Avas my reply, " doing Avhat you suggest ; and, Avere I to do so, trust me I should come to your brother and your self in the first place, to ask for your assistance ; but it must be remembered that there is nothing to go upon as yet. It is true that I know of Norris's imprisonment, but I do notknoAv where he is confined ; so that my journey resolves itself simply into a search (at any rate, in the meantime), rather than a hostile affair with the Chinese as enemy. You will understand, easily enough, that I do not feel justified as yet in calling for assistance ; indeed, in a Avord, I believe that one man is much more able to prosecute the search efficiently, and Avithout exciting sus picion, than a band of half-a-dozen !

" I Avas right, and he knew it. " Might Ave see the paper ? forgive my curiosity," said the younger. " I mean the paper brought you by the swalloAV." " Certainly," I ansAvered. "I Avas about to put it before you, in order to see if you could assist me in any way to fill the gaps." I took it from the little box in which I kept it. " There it is ! " The tAvo bent over it. " I see you have gummed it to a piece of cardboard," said Frederick. " Is there nothing on the back ?" W ing. 13 "Nothing," Avas my ansAver. " I did so to preserve it. Do either of you knoAV Pekin ? " " No. I am afraid Ave shall be of little assistance to you. One moment : Avhat is the meaning of the Avord ' us ' in the third line? You have spoken as though there was one man only, — this would indicate otherAvise." I ansAvered him at once.

" You have formed the same opinion as I did upon first reading the feAV Avords. I have carefully studied the fragment since that time, and I shall tell you Avhy I am of opinion that the first thought is in this case probably a wrong one. If Ave filled up this line by adding the Avord 'seek,' we decrease the space which might contain a Chinese name to a very small capacity. Noav, it is likely that the Avriter has in these Avords that are a-missing, given very full directions as to his Avhereabouts, Avhich he could not have done in the space we shall leave betAveen the Avord ' the ' and the word ' seek.' Again, look at the end of the second line ; you will see that if we make the paper square, as it seems to have been, there is exactly room for us to insert 'er,' making 'prisoner,' but scarcely margin for the addition of an ' s.' Then, and chiefly, we have ' William Norris,' solloAved by the date : no mention of other names.

And finally, Avithout giving you more lengthy and minor reasons, let me recall to you, if you wish further proof, that William Norris passed through Shanghai alone. My first reading was the simple one : ' In the , seek us in Pekin,' but later I put aside the Avord 'in,' and am inclined to treat this ' us ' as a part of a word, of Avhich the letters on either side are a-missing." Even as I spoke, something told me that I had Avandered into mere conjecture. I fell into a thought ful fit : to tell the truth, I had not greatly considered this point till noAv. I had knoAvn that Pekin Avas my des tination, and I had looked upon it as impossible to con jecture a Avord which Avould exactly fill this space. But now for a moment I began to think differently. " Can either of you suggest a Chinese Avord ending, say, Avith ' usi,' or ' usa,' or — well, I might go through the whole alphabet, gentlemen ?

" I asked. But perhaps it is unnecessary to say that the riddle remained unsolved. " And Avhat, then, do you imagine," asked Frederick Dicey, a little later, " to have been the history of this paper ? " " Well, I think you see the whole : a man crying for rescue, in some place Avhere he appears to have a certain liberty, in so far as he has been able to send this message. It is written, I cojnecture, in blood, scratched upon the fragment of paper with something small and sharp, like a pin. He has written a number such as this : we read it there, Avhere he says, 'tenth SAvallow.' This is only one of many. If it is in Court grounds that he is a prisoner, I despair of rescuing him ; but, in the mean time, I shall say no more. Here comes the boy." A short colloquy ensued ; then James Dicey turned to me, " He has found you a guide, and a good man too."

We sat late that evening — my last, as I have said, in Shanghai ; and I must confess that my mind Avas not a little relieved by the conversation, and possibly chiefly so from the knowledge that I was not merely foIloAving in the footsteps of William Norris, to disappear as he had done ; or, at least, that if I did so there were those Avho would solloAv me to lay bare his fate and mine. Four days later my guide and I had reached Tientsin.

Chapter II. It

is noAv necessary to leave for a little the narrative gleaned, so far, from the diary of Herbert Vanscombe, and to turn to events Avhich took place nearly a year before. In the summer of 18 — , exactly a year previous to the day on Avhich Herbert Vanscombe landed in Shanghai, a man of elderly appearance arrived in Yokohama by the San Francisco mail. It was his intention to pro ceed round the Avorld at his leisure, and thus it Avas that, after several months in America, he landed in Japan. Whether it be from the fact that his disposition Avas a solitary one, or from the absence of introductions, that he toured alone amidst the glorious scenery and the idyllic peace of Japan, it is difficult to say. That such Avas the case is the material point. He was bent upon travel of a prolonged nature, for the reason, Avhich drives many a man from the dear old home — an unfortunate love.

It had been a love affair ; that is all Avith Avhich Ave have to do. Further than this, he was one Avho, at the age of tAventy-eight, stood strangely isolated in the Avorld ; for his father's death, months previous to his departure from home, had left him at once an orphan, and a Avealthy idler to fill his time as he might please. Such Avas William Norris. It Avas natural that the lonely traveller should Aveary of the beauty of Japan. Thus it came that he de- •5 cided upon making the excursion to Pekin. Passing rapidly through Shanghai — for by chance he Avas in time to catch a departing steamer for Chefoo and Tientsin — he set out for the north. Hard travel he Avished to have, and hard travel he believed he should have amongst the northern Chinese. He was right : there are but feAv places in the world Avhere travel is at once so rough and crude.

There are several methods of traversing the distance of some eighty miles Avhich separate the capital from its port : one by the river, which, winding to and fro through the flat country, approaches Pekin as it Aoavs on ward to the coast ; the others by road, — firstly ( to take the most luxurious and least used) in the mule litter, tvhich is ofthe nature of a palanquin SAvung upon the backs of two mules, one of Avhich precedes the other, — those who have been in Bombay may knoAV a someAvhat similar equipage borne by natives in place of mules. In this the traveller may recline, lounging, with a fair degree of comfort, for hour upon hour ; — secondly, some Avho have frequent occasion to make the journey, very often do so upon horseback ; and, lastly, there are the mule-carts — one for the traveller, one for his guide — small, cramped, and Avithout springs — instruments of the divinest torture, and the most frequently utilized mode of transit betAveen Tientsin and Pekin.

Travelling by the last-named by day and night almost continuously for tAvo days, Norris arrived late upon the second afternoon, and indeed just before the closing of the gates, at the capital, Avorn out, as Avho could fail to be Avith the prolonged jolting, the clouds of dust, and the heat of the Eastern sun ? At this point it becomes advisable to place before the reader's mind something of the nature of a sketch, hoAV ever rough in outline and unfinished in detail, of the vast city of Pekin. Pekin consists of three cities proper — the Imperial, the Chinese, and the Tartar — each severed from the other, and again from the world as a Avhole by a Avail whose vast grandeur must be looked upon to be conceived. Within the outer Avails the main features are dust and ruins, and a total absence of anything in the shape of order, amongst dAvellings scattered here and there, often at Avide and irregular intervals, and in streets Avhose vast Avidth is encroached upon Avithout let or hindrance by the booths and stalls of the poor.