During this heated conversation the Prime Minister had partly risen to his hands and knees, although he kept his head hanging down until it nearly touched the floor. The Emperor had been watching Miss Hemster’s animated countenance, and he seemed greatly to enjoy my evident discomfiture. Even though he understood no word of our language, he saw plainly enough that I was getting the worst of the verbal encounter. Now the gradual uprising of the Prime Minister drew his attention temporarily to this grovelling individual, and he spoke a few words to him which at once raised my alarm for the safety of those in my care. His Majesty had evidently forgotten for the moment that I understood the Corean tongue. Hun Woe now rose to his feet, kept his back at an angle of forty-five degrees, and, without turning around, began to retreat from the Imperial presence. I at once stepped in his way, and said to the Emperor that this command must not go forth, whereupon the Majesty of Corea was good enough to laugh once more.
“What are you talking about?” demanded Miss Hemster. “You must translate everything that is said; and, furthermore, you must tell him that he has to apologize to me for his insult at the beginning.”
“All in good time, Miss Hemster.”
“Not all in good time,” she cried, rising from her chair. “If you don’t do that at once, I’ll go and slap his face again.”
“Please believe me, Miss Hemster, that you have already done that once too often. I assure you that the situation is serious, and you are increasing the danger by your untimely interference.”
Before she could reply, a roar of laughter from the Emperor, who wagged his head from side to side and rocked his body to and fro in his glee, drew my attention to the fact that I had been outwitted. The Prime Minister, taking advantage of my discussion with Miss Hemster, had scuttled silently away and had disappeared. I fear I made use of an exclamation to which I should not have given utterance in the presence of a lady; but that lady’s curiosity, overcoming whatever resentment she may have felt, clamoured to know what had happened.
“His Majesty,” said I, “gave orders to the Prime Minister doubly to guard the Palace gates, and see that no communication reached the outside from us. It means that we are prisoners!”
All this time I had not the least assistance from the old gentleman, who sat in a most dejected attitude on one of the wooden chairs. I had remained standing since we entered the room. Now he looked up with dismay on his countenance, and I was well enough acquainted with him to know that his fear was not for himself but for his daughter.
“Will you tell the Emperor,” he said, “that we are armed, and that we demand leave to quit this place as freely as we entered it?”
“I think, Mr. Hemster,” said I, “that we had better conceal the fact that we have arms,—at least until the Prime Minister returns. We can keep that as our trump card.”