To my surprise he at once blew his whistle and brought a dozen eunuchs running to answer the summons. Still leaning against the pillar Wi-to chattered away in Chinese for a time until his men prostrated themselves and hurried away to fulfil his commands.
“The cabinet will come to you, my master,” now answered the eunuch. “Is there anything else I can do?”
“Why, as regards the selection of the gifts——”
“Don’t hurry,” he interrupted, rubbing one eye with his knuckles. “Tlake it easy; much time; no hurry; only Mai Lo want you out of the way. Mai Lo? Dlam Mai Lo! English dlam. Pah!”
Really, I couldn’t understand Wi-to in this peculiar condition, so we left him still leaning against the post and went away to our own rooms.
Pretty soon there was considerable racket in the passageway, and we sent Bry to see what it meant. He returned grinning from ear to ear, and said the eunuchs were moving a house. So we looked out, and there were some twenty or more of the palace servants, perspiring and struggling with the immense cabinet that had been standing in the Prince’s bed-chamber. How they ever moved it at all was a wonder; but move it they did, inch by inch, and squeezed it through the great entrance door to our reception-room. I had them place it against the wall nearest the door and then they went away glad that the task was accomplished.
It was an absurd thing to do, and in all reason and common sense we should have been permitted to examine the cabinet where it originally stood; but oriental prejudices are difficult things to overcome, and since it was forbidden strangers to enter the royal apartments, the mountainous cabinet had to come to Mahomet Sam.
Now I had no right, as a matter of fact, to examine this private cabinet of the royal line of Kai, and my request to do so was but a blind to further our real plans. But since it was here, and since Wi-to had sent me a bunch of keys to unlock the different compartments, the temptation to look inside was irresistible.
“It’s this way,” I said to the boys; “if we don’t look over these things, others who may not be as friendly to Prince Kai’s memory are sure to do so. The estate and palace will shortly pass to the Emperor, who will either retain it for himself or give it to some favorite. So I believe we are justified in seeing what this old mystery-box contains.”
They agreed with me fully, so we began the examination. First we opened the desk part and found many documents in Chinese, sealed, signed and filed in a very business-like manner. These we could not read, and their importance was all unknown to us. Also there were numerous letters. One bunch of yellow missives bore the Imperial Vermilion Seal of the Emperor.