Part 16 (2/2)
Ling Wen nodded ever so slightly.
”It may be so, madame; I do not know.”
”A man who knew what Hun Sun did was too dangerous to be allowed to return to China, for he might hold even the Emperor himself within the hollow of his hand.”
”I follow your reasoning, madame; it is excellent.”
”The life of a man in China is always counted as insignificant. Is it not so, Ling Wen?”
”Who could be so ungallant as to contradict you?” he suavely responded.
”Hun Sun was sent with the message, and you, Ling Wen, were to kill him when he had delivered it.”
”Well, madame?”
”Because I know this, you will give me the seal and conduct me to my carriage.”
Ling Wen shook his head.
”No, madame, the price is too high for a series of deductions, clever though they be. His Excellency died from natural causes.”
”You are sure the physicians will say so?”
”Their opinion will not be asked. The French government cannot insult our ill.u.s.trious dead. Hun Sun is dead. That is sufficient.”
”But because of the part you have played, Ling Wen, I demand the seal as the price of my silence.”
He rose from his seat and paced the room, and when he spoke again his voice, for a Chinaman, had grown strangely incisive.
”I should not be swayed by a threat, madame, but if I can grant you a favor, I will.”
”Call it by which name you please,” I cried, seeing signs of his wavering.
”Why do you want the seal?”
”Are you for France or Russia, Ling Wen?”
”I am for China,” he answered, quietly; ”even a heathen has patriotism.
Why do you want the seal?”
I sat and pondered. How much must I tell him, and how much hold back? I looked anxiously at the seal as it lay upon the stool, and he interpreted my glance.
”For the moment,” he said, ”it is on neutral ground, and shall remain so until we have diplomatically solved the problem.”
I still hesitated; but there was no other way, and so perforce I took the only one open to me.
”It is to seal an alliance between France and China.”
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