Above the table was a square hole in the ceiling opening into an upper room where those could sit who did not wish to be seen, and were thus able to let their bets down in a little basket and with the same draw up their winnings. This upper room being purposely kept in half light enabled its occupants to see those below without being seen themselves.
Dom Pedro's luck was astonishing and quite a crowd of onlookers gathered about. Robert Adams growing weary of the play in which he took no interest, left, saying that he would walk slowly as far as the ruined cathedral of St. Paul and on his return step in again. As he stepped back from the table he looked up toward the opening in the ceiling where were two women with faces wrapped in black silk robosas, which showed only the eyes; as the eyes seemed fixed upon him he raised his hat. The action seemed to cause the women considerable consternation, for both hurriedly sprang back from the rail and in doing so one let fall, upon the table below, the basket with a bit of paper and several Mexican dollars which rolled about the room. Everyone looked up laughing at the accident but no one from above claimed the money. Adams left the room glad to be in the fresh air under the clear, starlit sky.
No more lonely or picturesque ruin ever existed than the church of St. Paul; though human habitations crowd close upon it, they are however the houses of Chinese and make the Christian edifice seem the more solitary. The church is of that favourite style of architecture so common in new and old Spain, which always brings to the mind of the wanderer in foreign lands the name of good San Xavier.
The half moon had risen high enough to illuminate the whole front as Adams climbed the broad, massive steps to the paved space before it. Leaning against the heavy balustrade he enjoyed the picture. The shadows were deep and through the sightless windows shone a few silver stars. The magnificent front of solid granite with graceful scroll-work and carved outline, blackened here by smoke and there by age, with vines and trees growing from crevices, stood in wondrous beauty.
The detail showed clearer than by day; the panels in high relief, of full rigged ship, the double dolphin and the skeleton seemed too fragile to have stood through earthquake and typhoon and the conflagrations of war for more than two hundred years. The exquisite frieze composed of many unconventionalized flowers extending across the front, wherein the artist and worker had been one, was a petrified garland. This scene was a revelation to Adams for often as he had viewed and sketched the ruin, he had never been there by moonlight when its beauties were enhanced and its defects hidden. He could see plainly each Chinese character upon the carved scrolls and the words "Mater Dei" above the doorway.
Slowly the shadows crept along, making the six broken saints in their niches seem alive; slowly the shadows upon the ruin crept along, but a swifter shadow suddenly came forward from the steps and Adams having forgotten, in the entrancing scene the murderer and thief who lurk in all Macao's corners, turned as he heard a soft step, just in time to receive in his right arm the upward blow of a dagger aimed at his side. He lost his balance falling backward down the steps, striking his head upon a heap of broken roof-tiles where he lay insensible. As he fell, a woman's scream pierced the night. There was hurried tramping of sandaled feet, as of a dozen or more coolies. The shriek was again heard and then all was silent and the plaza empty.
IV
Sleepy Macao the day after the attempted assassination of Robert Adams was treated to a sensation such as had not been its experience since the memorable day in 1848 when the old Governor de Amaral lost his head at the Porta de Cerco. Murder, attempted or accomplished, could not have stirred them up to such an extent, for that was too common an occurrence, but the mystery of the event was the cause. Priscilla Harvey and her maid with one of Dom Amaral's most trusted men servants had disappeared as completely as though the earth had swallowed them.
Robert Adams, since the night of the attack had not recovered his senses, and lay in the house of Dom Amaral apparently between life and death. The surgeons from Sam Januarius hospital had decided that to save him, the amputation of his arm would be necessary, for the dagger which had cut it had been poisoned.
In the midst of this trouble, Priscilla's absence was discovered, and Macao was alarmed. Men were sent from the Governor's house in all directions to search the public houses, the fishing boats, and every possible place within the small territory. Word was sent to Taipa. While the officials were thus employed, private parties of searchers went over the entire peninsula looking among the rocks and copses of the Estrada and even the Parsee Tower of Silence was examined, but all in vain. The fan-tan house proprietor told of two unknown women with a Chinese servant who had visited his house, but when they had left he did not know. No more was learned though the search still continued, for large rewards were offered by Dom Amaral as well as by the Governor.