A servant of Satan: Romantic career of Prado the assassin

by Louis Berard

When he returned home that evening, the widow of his ill-fated groom rushed up to him and, kissing his boot, entreated his pardon for the “stupidity of which her husband had been guilty in dying while out with the master and occasioning him thereby the trouble of attending to his own horse.”

Frederick, much amused at this display of truly oriental courtesy, tossed the woman a few yen notes and entered the the house, laughing, with the intention of telling Madame Van der Beck about it. The smile, however, faded from his lips when he came into her presence, for, having learned from the men who had brought home the groom's body, the nature of the place where Frederick was in the habit of passing his days, her feelings of jealousy and anger were aroused to a boiling pitch. Thoroughly spoiled, accustomed to have every whim humored, and with no notion of how to control her temper, she gave full vent to a perfect torrent of reproaches and abuse against the man for whom she had sacrificed husband, rank, and position. She taunted him bitterly with his ingratitude, and it was only with the greatest difficulty that he at length succeeded in restoring her to anything like calm.

Had she but known the true character and the past record of the man to whom she had so rashly confided her happiness, it is probable that she would have exercised a greater restraint over her temper. Frederick had now lost all sense of her charms and attractions, and was determined to cut himself loose from bonds which, though gilded, had become irksome to him. Moreover, he lived in constant dread that her husband, Mr. Van der Beck, would end by discovering their place of refuge. This last encounter with his mistress brought matters to a climax, and he determined to put into execution, without any further delay, the projects which he had been maturing for some time past.

A few days later, he rode into Yokohama and took the train up to Tokio. There he directed his jinrikisha, as the little two-wheeled carriages (drawn at a sharp trot by one, two, or three coolies, harnessed tandem fashion) are called, to take him to the quarter of the metropolis inhabited by the merchants dealing in furs. After considerable trouble, he succeeded in finding some skins of the wild-cat, with which he returned to the railway station and thence to Yokohama.

On reaching home, he seized the earliest possible moment to lock himself up in his room, where he spent an hour in cutting off the short, hard hairs of the furs which he had purchased, and, locking them away in a small box, he then destroyed the skins.

While stationed in the interior of Java, a native soldier to whom he had shown some acts of kindness had displayed his gratitude by making him acquainted with the properties of the chopped hair of a wild-cat when mixed with food. These hairs are swallowed without being noticed, but remain stuck by their points in the intestines. Any attempts to remove them or to relieve the patient by means of medicines are useless, since the hairs merely bend in order to give way to the medicament and then resume their former position. In a very short space of time, they produce terrible and incurable ulcerations of the intestines, and in the course of a few weeks the victim, who is unable to take any further food or nourishment, wastes away and finally dies of exhaustion and inanition.

It was of this fiendish method that Frederick was about to avail himself for the purpose of getting rid of his rich inamorata, whose money, however, he was determined at all costs to retain.

Mme. Van der Beck soon began to notice an agreeable change in the conduct of Frederick. His indifference and coldness vanished entirely and he became once more an attentive and devoted lover. He no longer spent his days at the “chaya,” but remained at home, and only left the house to accompany her on her drives in the lovely environs of Yokohama. Nina was at first at a loss to understand the reason of so radical a reformation, but finally made up her mind that it was to be attributed to the sorrow she had manifested at his neglect; and her love for him revived in all its former intensity.

One day while driving in the neighborhood their attention was suddenly attracted by cries for assistance which proceeded from the banks of a small stream. On approaching the spot they found that an English phaeton of somewhat antiquated build, and drawn by an exceedingly vicious looking pair of half-broken Japanese ponies, had been overturned into the water. The carriage was imbedded in the mud, and the grooms were making frantic efforts to extricate the terrified horses from the tangle of harness and reins. On the bank stood a Japanese gentleman in native costume, who was giving directions to his men. Frederick, having alighted, courteously raised his hat and inquired if he could be of any assistance, an offer which was gratefully accepted. With the help of his servants the ponies were at length freed, but it was found impossible to pull the heavy and cumbrous vehicle out of the mud. At Nina's pressing solicitation, the Japanese, who, judging by his dress and appearance, was evidently a man of high rank, allowed himself to be prevailed upon to accept a seat in her carriage and to be driven to his home. The latter was an extremely pretty country house surrounded by vast grounds. On taking leave of them, with many profuse expressions of gratitude, he requested permission to call upon them on the following day. They learned subsequently from their major-domo that their new acquaintance was one of the most famous statesmen of the land.

On the following day he paid them a long visit, and before he left requested them to spend the next afternoon at his yashiki. There for the first time they caught a glimpse of Japanese life such as is rarely enjoyed by foreigners.