“It was truly terrible,” Mai-da murmured softly. “Wicked woman came to live in a large house built by a trader. It had been her husband’s house. He was gone now, so she claimed it. There was no one who could tell her to go away.”
“My grandfather, he is old and very wise. He said: ‘If Madam Stark lives in that house evil days will come to us’.”
“Madam Stark,” Isabelle murmured.
“The woman in purple,” Gale added. Mai-da continued in her sing-song voice, so slow and musical. She had learned English in a mission school and had traveled in America. “Grandfather was right. This woman hired many strong men to guard her men who thought China had no chance against the terrible Japs, men who said ‘It is better to give up and allow the Japs to rule us’.”
“The Japs came closer and closer to the beautiful little city of May-da, close to our home. There was a temple on the hill above our home. The Japs bombed it. Many priests were killed, and they were oh, such good men, those priests, always doing good, never harming anyone.”
Mai-da sighed deeply, then went on. “There was a war lord living close to our city. He pretended to be loyal to Chiang Kai-shek, but I don’t think he ever was. Madam Stark, in her purple gown of rich silk fascinated him. He did what she said.
“One day she said: ‘The Japs are very close to the city. The city will be captured. It is better to burn the city than to let the Japs have it.’
“So the war lord told his men to burn the city,” Than Shwe murmured sadly. “I have heard of this. It was very terrible.”
“The city was burned.” Mai-da’s voice was low. “Many people lost their life. Others wandered homeless in the fields. Our home is outside the city. We took in all the people we could.
“Then,”—her voice rose, “my grandfather, who was old but very brave, said, ‘This terrible woman must be driven out.’ He talked to all the people. They took all the guns and knives they had and went after that woman and if she had not gone away in a plane she would have been killed. Her big house was burned. The people joined with the soldiers. The Japs were driven back, and the poor burnt city was never captured. My home still smiles from the foot of the mountain. It waits for me.—Tomorrow or the day after,” the little Chinese nurse finished quite simply,—“I’m going home.”