The Complete Adventures of Hazard & Partridge by Robert J. Pearsall

Author:Robert J. Pearsall
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Action and Adventure
Publisher: Altus Press
Published: 2014-02-03T08:00:00+00:00

Ming Gold

MASKED knowledge may sometimes be useful; and Hazard and I, still seeking out the devious workings of the revolutionary Ko Lao Hui, evilest of Chinese tongs, had listening to do in the market-places of Yunnan-fu, whither we were bound from Lololand over the wilderness of mountains that is central Yunnan. So it was that to our youthful guide, Wang, who was of a family of ten generations of guides, our “Chinese hearing had not yet come,” and his talk with us was mainly limited to the four most useful English words he knew—

“Masters, do not go.”

Those words had grown parrot-like to our ears, and, even though the hills through which he’d piloted us were known to be infested with robbers preying on the rich traffic from Sz-Chuen to the coast, we’d come to believe Wang’s bump of prudence overdeveloped. When he repeated them at sight of that queer gathering on the bank of the Yalung River, we laid it to a habit of caution and perhaps to a desire for “squeeze.” That last because of the tall, gently swaying mast that thrust itself above the rocks which almost barred our view of the broad, ocher-colored stream ahead of us.

Indeed, I’m still inclined to think that the mast, suggesting the possibility of a quick passage of the river without the necessity for profitable bargaining with passing boatmen, was the real cause for Wang’s warning.

But in any case it was too late to retreat. We were seen the moment we rounded the curve of the dry creek-bottom we’d been following, and from the cluster of twenty-odd yellow men clad in the usual disarray of provincial soldiers—loose blue blouses, ragged bamboo helmets and gaping lower garments through which the wind whistled—a rotund, sparsely bearded man in a dark-colored mandarin robe instantly started to meet us. A very dignified looking man who, as he approached us, clasped his hands together, waggled them up and down and smiled gravely in salutation.

“An official party,” murmured Hazard. “And a lucky meeting—perhaps!” he added quickly.

“For us?” I questioned, for I, too, had caught certain signs of recent disaster in the group back of the mandarin—a group which seemed to be watching us intently. “Well, not if one holds to the theory that luck’s contagious. I suppose, since we’re liable to meet this gentleman again, we’d better ’fess up our knowledge of his lingo.”

The mandarin was too close for Hazard to reply, but it’s not good to deceive Chinese officials and so I took my companion’s agreement for granted. So, the next moment, with Wang glumly watching the revelation of our linguistic abilities, we were bowing, shaking our own hands and displaying all the knowledge we had of the nineteen ceremonies of introduction.

But my solicitude in this respect did not prevent me from continuing to use my eyes and, as I used them, my wonder increased. Chinese of the official class are, for the most part, accustomed to consult their own ease before anything else, and the mere fact of finding one of this class in this wilderness was in itself puzzling.

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