The Island Where Time Stands Still (37 page)

‘We saw a few,' Gregory agreed, ‘just near the towns.'

Tû-lai shrugged. ‘A few years ago you would not have seen one, and China's agricultural areas cover hundreds of thousands of square miles. Those families who have not yet been given motor ploughs have at least seen them, and are working like devils for a government that promises that all shall be given them in a not-far-distant future.'

‘Then it seems that the Communists are bringing great good to China,' A-lu-te put in.

‘Up to a point, yes,' Tû-lai replied. ‘But we shall have to pay for it later, when all culture and freedom of thought has been destroyed, and the Communist ideology forced upon our whole people. To bring that about they are spending vast sums on education, and every teacher in every school is a Communist. Their propaganda too is most skilfully directed and pervades every walk of life. And no one any longer dares to argue against the stream of lies they pour forth, because China is already a Police State, with spies everywhere. We know that they have several of them in this house; but it would be as much as our lives are worth to attempt to expel them.'

‘Why then,' Gregory asked, ‘if they are already so powerful, do they allow you to go on living here in such luxury? In other countries they have never hesitated to strip wealthy people of their riches.'

Tû-lai shrugged again. ‘Our caravans still do a big trade with Russia, behind which lies centuries of experience; and they know that we run our ships much more efficiently than they could do themselves. We are already reduced to the status of their agents, and face is saved on both sides by a hypocritical pretence that we are enthusiastic supporters of the regime. They would gain little by turning us into a State concern as they already take the lion's share of our profits. No doubt there are plenty of fanatical Marxists among them who would like to rob us of everything we
possess and kill us; but the big shots know that to do so would be to kill one of the few remaining geese in China that still lay golden eggs, and that if such geese are not allowed to retain comfortable nests to lay in they refuse to go on laying. That is why, to all appearances, we continue living here as in the past, and there is no outward sign that they hold a sword above our heads.'

‘I had naturally assumed that you had to make it worth their while to let you carry on; but I had no idea that they allowed you to remain here only on sufferance,' Gregory said thoughtfully. ‘Since that is the case, though, it amazes me that they still permit you to keep armed retainers.'

‘They have to, for the protection of our caravans,' came the quick reply. ‘Even the Soviets have not succeeded in putting down brigandage in their sparsely-populated Asiatic territories. But the men are no longer sworn to obey us. Some of the older ones are still loyal; but if a Communist official arrived with an order for our arrest the majority of them would not hesitate to carry it out. And that might happen any time. I do not think it will for a year or two yet, but sooner or later they will decide that they have infiltrated enough of their people into our business to run it. In China, as you must know, only very rarely is anyone made bankrupt. Even before the time of the Great Sage, it was a well-established tradition that no man should smash another's rice bowl. But these people do it without compunction. One day they will descend on us without warning and fill our mouths with the salt of ruin.'

A-lu-te sighed. ‘How terrible to live always under such a threat. I understand now why you think the Princess would be a fool not to come with us. But why don't you sell everything while you have the chance, and go to America?'

He looked at her, and then for a long moment at Gregory, before replying. ‘I am sure I can trust you both. That is what we hope to do. At least, as far as it is possible. For many months we have been gradually disposing of certain assets and smuggling the proceeds out of the country. But it is an extremely difficult thing to do on a large scale without
being caught. For example, we dare not sell or remove more than a small portion of the priceless treasures in this house. The spies among the servants are too stupid to learn much about our affairs; but they would notice if many of the most valuable pieces disappeared, and would report it. That would be quite enough to give away our intentions.'

‘Then all those lovely things must pass out of the possession of your family,' said A-lu-te sadly.

‘Yes,' he nodded. ‘And once we are gone these Communist swine will loot even the graves of our ancestors for the jewels that were buried with them.'

After a moment he added on a lighter note, ‘Still, if we don't leave things too long, we shall get out with our lives and enough money not to have to beg for our rice; so perhaps instead of going to the United States I will ask permission to come to live in your island.'

‘Having been out in the wide world for so long, I fear you would find little to hold your interest there,' said A-lu-te demurely.

He gave her a meaning smile. ‘In certain circumstances I should be perfectly content to remain there for the rest of my life; but it would be an added advantage if one could sometimes travel again. As I am quite a good business man perhaps your Council would give me a job in their export department—on the understanding, of course, that if I were married I could take my wife on my travels with me.'

‘You will have to come there pretty soon then, or you will find the position filled.' Gregory launched the
double entendre
for fun, but added smoothly, ‘I mean, we recently lost our Export Manager, but as soon as we inform the Council of his death they are certain to appoint someone in his place.'

In view of their conversation Gregory was not particularly surprised the following morning to see in the main courtyard the cloaked and fur-hatted Communist who had saved him from being stoned on the way up from Tung-kwan. He was talking to one of the cooks as Gregory passed through the great yard with A-lu-te and Tû-lai on their
way to see a squash-racquets court that the latter had had built. Pointing out the Communist, Gregory told the story; but they were some way away from the squat figure and Tû-lai did not bother to give it a second glance, merely remarking:

‘Perhaps he belongs to their headquarters in Yen-an, or has been sent into the province to collect funds, most of which he will keep himself. There are now many of these small-fry who gain an easy living by terrorising the defenceless; but we should know it already if he meant any harm to us.'

Tû-lai had trained several young men to play squash with him; and Gregory was secretly amused to see that, although two of them showed great ability, all of them lost by handsome margins to their master in the games he had arranged to play as an entertainment for A-lu-te.

That evening, soon after sunset, Lin Wân informed them that Josephine had decided to accept the throne of the island; so they all went to pay her their respects and wish her a happy reign. She received their homage very prettily, but was called on to pay for it by an early lesson demonstrating the way in which a sovereign's personal wishes have frequently to be sacrificed for the common good.

She asked for a week in which to say her good-byes and make her preparations for the journey, but Kâo again deferentially pointed out that even a day's delay might jeopardise the safety of the yacht and its crew; so she had to agree to leaving after midday rice the following day. On other points, too, she had to give way to Kâo's polite insistence. He told her that, as on their journey to the coast they must give the impression that they were ordinary middle-class people, the quantity of baggage she took should not exceed by much the modest amount A-lu-te had brought with her; and that as A-lu-te's maid could serve them both, the limited cabin space in a sampan was the strongest of reasons for her giving up any idea that she should be accompanied by a personal maid of her own.

Madame Fan-ti invited her to join them for evening rice
but she excused herself on the plea that as she must leave next day she had too much to do; so after Lin Wân had sent for sweet champagne, and they had drunk her health in it, they adjourned to the meal without her.

Afterwards, A-lu-te and Gregory again spent the rest of the evening in Tû-lai's rooms. He appeared most upset because they were leaving so soon; so both of them did their best to cheer him up—A-lu-te by flirting with him openly, and Gregory by asking her to dance with him only twice—so that their host could make the most of the opportunity to
jazz à l'America
which, he said, he had never before been able to enjoy so far from western civilisation.

But they were by no means as near seeing the last of him as they had supposed, for the following morning he appeared dressed in travelling clothes, and announced his intention of escorting them as far as Tung-kwan. Apart from the pleasure his lively company was likely to give them, they were glad because it would make the lonely roads safer. With Kào's hired men their little party would have included only seven males, whereas Tû-lai proposed to take with him six of the Lin caravan guards; and the addition meant a total train of some thirty riding and baggage animals, the sight of which at a distance was enough to scare off foot-pads or small bands of marauders.

It was not until they were just about to set out that Gregory noticed that P'ei was once more absent from the party. Kâo replied that, much to his annoyance, his servant had fallen sick the previous night, owing to something he had eaten, and was now in a state of complete exhaustion from a grievous colic. To delay their departure until he recovered was out of the question, but Kâo had left him ample money and Lin Wân had promised to furnish him with papers stating that he was one of his people; so it was to be hoped that he would catch them up somewhere between Tung-kwan and Su-chow.

Lin Wân and the Lady Fan-ti came out to the great gate to see them off, and, after the exchange of elaborate farewells, they started on their long journey to the coast.
Their pace was restricted to the steady plodding of the camels; but even so, this smaller caravan was able to move faster than the big one with which they had come, and they covered fourteen miles before sundown brought them to a halt for the night.

The evening wind from the west had arisen as usual, and they had to keep their hoods well over their heads and faces to prevent the driving sand from getting into their hair and eyes; but they managed to find a fairly sheltered place to camp under the lee of a cliff. On the way up A-lu-te had shared her tent with Su-sen, and now expected to have to accommodate Josephine in it also; but the Lins had provided her with one for herself, while Tû-lai had one of his own, so they were not unduly crowded.

While their meal was being cooked they sat round the fire, and they remained there for some time after they had eaten. The difficulty of conversing with Josephine now became more apparent than ever, as, although she could listen to all that was said, and convey understanding by gestures, she could make no contribution to the talk except by scribbling on pieces of paper, and her writing had to be deciphered by the light of a torch.

After a time, as Gregory was the only member of the party who could interpret her phonetically-spelt French, a tendency arose for them to exchange ideas without reference to the others. Kâo had been smoking a pipe of opium, so fell into a doze, and Tû-lai needed no urging to develop a private conversation with A-lu-te.

That first evening proved a fair sample of what became almost a customary pairing off in the days that followed. Gregory would have much preferred to spend his time talking to A-lu-te, as he found Josephine's mentality extremely limited, and there were even times when she appeared too stupid to write intelligent replies to quite straightforward questions. About her life in San Francisco she would say little, except that she had been unhappy there, and he got very tired of always talking about the island, which was the only subject that seemed to interest her. Yet she was so
isolated from everyone else that he felt too sorry for her to ignore her signals and join the others, when at every halt she beckoned to him to come and sit by her side.

For all Kâo's easy-going jollity, he continued to perform his self-imposed duty of chaperon very conscientiously, so there could be no question of either of the ladies wandering away out of the glow of the nightly camp fires with Gregory or Tû-lai; but on the fourth evening while camp was being pitched, A-lu-te and Gregory chanced to be standing a little apart, out of ear-shot of the others, and she took the occasion to say to him a little petulantly:

‘You must find the Princess very charming to devote so much of your time to her.'

‘On the contrary,' he replied. ‘I find her a colossal bore. Her mother may have been beautiful, but her brain must have been about the size of a pea, judging from the little she taught her daughter. The girl is a positive ignoramus. Of course it is quite understandable that her knowledge of the world should be limited, but she must have had more than the usual amount of time for reading, and apart from light French novels, she doesn't seem to have ever looked inside a book. Still, I am the only person in the party who can lighten the tedium of the journey for her, so you mustn't take it badly if I seem to be neglecting you. And, after all, you seem to be filling in your time very pleasantly with Tû-lai.'

‘Yes, I find him a most agreeable companion,' she admitted calmly. ‘As things have turned out it was very fortunate for me that he came with us.'

As Gregory felt affection, rather than love, for her, the way in which she was flirting with Tû-lai had not caused him to become jealous; but she had certainly given him grounds enough, and it occurred to him that she might feel hurt if he failed to show it; so he said with sudden asperity:

‘I've a damned good mind to take that young man behind the rocks and punch his head. I will, too, if you don't stop encouraging him every time he makes eyes at you.'