“It’s got to be done, safe or unsafe,” replied Joe, and in a moment a faint light flared up, and Joe shaded it with his hands while I cast a hurried glance at the tapestry.
“No light can shine through that, I’m sure,” said I. “Here, Joe; light the lamp.”
I held it while he touched the match to the wick, and then we stood up and gazed curiously around us.
We found ourselves in a lofty sleeping chamber that was beautifully furnished. The carved mahogany bedstead with its pagoda-like canopy towered fully fifteen feet in height, and its curtains were cloth-of-gold. Around the frieze, just above the heavy tapestry hangings, was a row of embossed golden fishes with ivory horns, set in a background of azure blue. Near to where we stood, at the left of the secret panel, a number of bronze tablets were attached to the wall, their faces engraved with Chinese characters. I supposed these to be the tablets of ancestors, which every house contains in its inmost sanctum. Before the tablets was a sort of altar, containing a vase for burning incense and prayers.
A broad archway, hung with stiff draperies, formed a communication with the next room of the suite, and just beyond it stood a great carved cabinet with numerous drawers and recesses and a writing shelf in the center. This I thought must be the Prince’s “desk” which I had asked the Chief Eunuch to remove to my room, without realizing its size. That he had promised to do so filled me with wonder, for I doubted if it could be carried through the archway.
Passing around the huge bedstead and holding the lamp before us, we peered into the further corner of the room and with one accord shrank back in sudden fear. For before us stood a gigantic form in glittering armor, with a face-mask so terrible in expression that it might well cause a sinking of the heart. And behind the mask glittered two cruel, piercing eyes, while the right arm swung a scimitar as if about to attack the beholder and hack him asunder.
“Never mind,” muttered Joe, with a low laugh. “It isn’t alive, although it looks it.”
“It’s the statue we were searching for,” said I.
“No wonder it used to scare the Prince,” remarked Archie. “Ugh! I shouldn’t want to own that fellow for an ancestor.”
“This was the first Kai,” I rejoined. “They must have been giants in those days, if he’s a sample warrior.”