“So you went back to Tiainan?” asked Brachey.
“Oh, no, I was taken back against grain as prisoner of large armed guard.”
“And you delivered the message?”
“Oh, yes!”
“Pao didn't accept, of course. Though I don't see how he could get out of it. He had no soldiers to speak of, did he?”
“Oh, yes, some. These he sent by northern road to region of Shan Tang, only thirty li away from Ping Yang. And then he accept, for His Excellency is great statesman. Nobody yet ever put it over on His Excellency, not so you could notice it. Without frown or smile he assemble secretaries, runners and lictors of yamen. banner-men, some concubines and eunuchs and come post-haste.”
“So he's here now?”
“Oh, yes. We have large establishment at temple over on neighboring hill. And everything's all right. O. K.”
“You'll forgive me if I don't at all understand why.”
“Naturally. I am going to make clear as cotton print. For a day or so everything was as disorderly as the dickens, of course. You couldn't hear yourself think. And sleep? My God, there wasn't any. And of course after death of old reprobate Lookers went to pieces and raised Ned. It became necessary to punish leaders and all that sort of thing. You see, Dame Rumor gets move on in China, runs around like scared chicken, faster than telegraph, I sometimes think. And when Lookers heard stories, that Imperial Government up at Peking wasn't so crazy about giving them support, and might even hand them double-cross lemon, they began to think about patching holes in fences. They just blew up. And His Excellency”—he chuckled—“he grasped situation like chain lightning. Oh, but he's whale of a fellow, His Excellency!” Brachey smoked reflectively as he studied this curiously bloodless enthusiast. Evidently behind the humorously inadequate English speech of Mr. Po there was, if it could be got at, a stirring drama of intrigue. A typical Oriental drama, bearing a smooth surface of silken etiquette but essentially cruel and bloody. The difficulty would be, of course, in getting at it, drawing it out piecemeal and putting it together.