The Island Where Time Stands Still (45 page)

Gregory smiled back. ‘You can rule out any hope of the half-million dollars.'

‘I feared as much,' Tû-lai remarked amiably. ‘As Kâo had no means of raising such a sum before he arrived here, I did not see how he could possibly have managed to do so in the past week. I may take it, then, that my father's dear old friend conceived the charming idea of sending you to try your hand at cheating the poor orphan?'

‘No; that's not right either.' Gregory paused for a moment, then leaned forward a little. ‘Look; d'you mind if we start again from the beginning. It's clear to me now that I arrived here with a lot of misconceptions about your father and yourself. On that account I have not been altogether honest with you. And, of course, it's obvious that you have quite a wrong idea of the part that I have played in this affair. Let's be frank with one another and put all our cards on the table.'

Tû-lai gave a slightly ironical bow. ‘Permit me to observe that, so far, I have told no lies to you.'

‘I didn't suggest you had,' Gregory replied with a disarming smile. ‘I was simply apologising for my own lapses. All the same, there must be a lot that I know about this set-up that you don't, and vice versa. Are you willing to come clean with me if I come clean with you?'

‘Why not? The affair intrigues me greatly, and there are still many things about it that I don't understand. As you are my guest I will offer you the privilege of speaking first.'

As Gregory acknowledged the courtesy he had a slightly uneasy feeling. Perhaps it was his imagination but he thought he had detected a slightly sinister inflection on the word ‘Guest'. In this great house, all the inmates of which were virtually Tû-lai's slaves, and which lay the best part of a month's journey from the nearest British Consulate, what was there to stop the word ‘guest' being converted into ‘prisoner'?

But he had known the risk he would have to run when he had decided to return to it; so he proceeded to give a truthful account of the way in which Shih-niang had met her end, and of how, by displaying his British passport, he had bluffed Chou into covering his escape from Tung-kwan. Then he said:

‘So, you see, I was lying to you when I told you that Kâo had sent me to collect the real Princess. I came back to try to get hold of her on my own account; but I had no idea that you were holding her to ransom, and I had no intention of trying to make money out of the business if I succeeded.'

Tû-lai nodded. ‘You interest me more than ever. Do go on. If you are not after money, what did you hope to gain by obtaining possession of Josephine?'

‘Nothing; except a certain personal satisfaction. After these many months of unsuccessful search for her, and the people of the Island having been told that she was dead, I should have got a big thrill from taking her back there and presenting her to the lady A-lu-te.'

‘A-lu-te.' Tû-lai repeated with a little sigh. ‘And what part do you think that lovely lady has played in all this?'

‘No part at all, except to pursue the search for the Princess with all the vigour of which she is capable. It was she who was largely responsible for badgering her lazy uncle into coming to China, when he would have preferred to give up the hunt before we left San Francisco. I am convinced that she had no idea at all that your father had foisted a fake Princess on us, or the least suspicion that the girl was to be murdered.'

‘I am glad you believe that, for I am also convinced that she would never have stooped to soil her hands with this dirty business.'

For a moment they were silent, then Gregory said, ‘Now it is your turn. So far, I have learned only three things from our talk. Namely that the Princess is here; that you are asking half a million dollars' ransom for her; and that your father and Kâo entered into a conspiracy in which Shih-niang was to be passed off as Josephine, and afterwards murdered. What else can you tell me?'

‘I'm afraid you will find my contribution somewhat disappointing,' Tû-lai replied thoughtfully. ‘You see, for most of the year I am away from home and I was not here when my father returned from his last trip to America. Had I been, no doubt he would have told me the Princess's history then, and why he had brought her back with him. As it was I did not even know of her existence until about five weeks ago, and I had been home for several days before I learned of her presence here. That same afternoon the lady Fan-ti took me to the women's quarters and presented me to her; then, a few evenings later, it was suggested that she would make a charming wife for me.'

Suddenly there flashed back into Gregory's mind the morning on which Madame Fan-ti had taken A-lu-te, Kâo and himself to see the view through the lattices to the women's court. Recalling it to Tû-lai, he said:

‘If you remember, Madame Fan-ti mentioned that you lost your first wife last year, and said that it was time you
took another. Then she pointed out a most lovely little person and told us that your father did not wish to press you but hoped that you would take her as a new wife. Was she the Princess Josephine?'

Tû-lai nodded. ‘Yes; and I recall thinking at the time that my father ought to have warned the lady Fan-ti not to take A-lu-te to the women's court, in case she stumbled on the truth. That, of course, was why he opposed her being installed there when she first arrived. The lady Fan-ti was not told of the deception it was intended to practise until later, and that morning visit might have ruined everything. At the sight of Josephine Kâo became as nervous as a cat, and, if you remember, did his best to hurry us all away.'

‘Then he had seen her before, in San Francisco?'

‘Oh, yes; from various things I heard him say to my father I feel sure he must have. Anyhow, as I was telling you, they wanted me to marry her; but, lovely as she is, I felt most reluctant to take a dumb girl for a wife; so I stalled about it. A fortnight later we learned that your party was on its way here. My father called me into his office, and it was only then that I learnt a certain amount about this business.

‘He was in a high good humour, as he thought that Kâo was bringing him half a million dollars; and as I had shown reluctance to become affianced to the Princess, he knew that it would be no hardship to me if she was disposed of elsewhere. He explained that he would never have suggested the marriage if he had thought Kâo would pay up; and that this was the outcome of a highly-speculative venture that he had entered into when last in San Francisco, without really expecting it to come off. He had never before spoken to me about your Island, and I had known of it only as a customer on our books entered as Mr. Six, with agency addresses in several cities; but he told me its history, charging me to keep it a close secret, and about how its Council wished to make Josephine its Empress. He also told me how he had come to know the Août's in San Francisco and of the narrow life they led there. Beyond that he said very little, except that when Kâo arrived I was to say nothing
to him or any of his people about the money side of the affair.'

‘Did he give no indication of what had led to his becoming involved in the first place?' Gregory asked.

Tû-lai shook his handsome head. ‘No, and it was not for me to question him. I was very fond of my father, and it would ill-become me to besmirch his reputation now that he is dead. But in fairness I should tell you that he would go to almost any lengths to increase his great fortune. Although he did not actually say so, I gathered the impression that when Kâo first went to San Francisco to collect Josephine, my father learned of his intentions and forestalled him, with the idea that the Council would pay a big sum to get her back. I think, too, that he was quite capable of cheating Kâo out of his half-million he had seen away to do so.'

‘Do you mean that he had already conceived the idea of substituting Shih-niang for Josephine before we arrived?'

‘I did not say that; although the precautions he took that the lady A-lu-te should not meet the real Princess seem to suggest it. But, of course, if he did have some such idea it must have gone up in smoke as soon as he realised that Kâo already knew Josephine by sight.'

‘Yet the substitution took place all the same.'

‘Yes. It was on the day after your arrival that my father told me Kâo was in no position to pay up after all, but they were considering a scheme by which we still might get the half-million in the long run. As it would have been quite contrary to his principles to let Kâo take Josephine away simply on trust, I thought perhaps he was toying with the idea of letting him do so providing that he left the lady A-lu-te behind as a hostage. Naturally I should have been all in favour of that, but I was barking up the wrong tree. The following morning he told me that it had been decided that Shih-niang should play the part of the Princess; and that I must show her every sign of respect until we saw the last of her, because it was of the utmost importance that the lady A-lu-te should not suspect the deception which
it was proposed to practise. How it was thought that the fraud would enable Kâo to raise half a million dollars, I have no idea; but, once again, it was not for me to question my father. That's pretty well all I know about the matter.'

‘You have said nothing yet about that part of the plan which required that Shih-niang should be killed.'

Tû-lai shrugged. ‘I have said nothing because I know nothing. You will recall that while you were here I spent my evenings entertaining the lady A-lu-te and yourself; so I was not present at any of the deliberations between my father and Kâo. But on the last night of your stay, after you had gone to bed, I came in here to ask my father's permission to accompany your caravan down to Tung-kwan. He agreed at once; and it was then that he remarked to me:

‘“For a girl of limited accomplishments Shih-niang gave an excellent performance, and I am really quite distressed at the thought of having to sacrifice her.”

‘I took it that he meant that by giving her to Kâo he was adding to his liability in the venture by the considerable amount of money that she represented; but he went on:

‘“It is necessary that she should die, and her death appear to be an accident; so I have had to agree that a few nights after they leave Tung-kwan in a sampan she should be held under water until she drowns. I wish matters could have been arranged otherwise, but there seems no alternative if this affair is to be carried through to a satisfactory conclusion.”

‘As he used the word “they”, and I knew that the lady A-lu-te was kept in the dark about the whole business, I jumped to the conclusion that it was you whom, in his mind, he was coupling with Kâo. That is why, at the beginning of our talk, I was under the impression that you had been in Kâo's confidence from the beginning, and that you had arranged Shih-niang's murder between you.'

‘In the circumstances I can hardly blame you for that,' Gregory said with a wry smile. ‘And, of course, when you warned Shih-niang you had myself as well as Kâo in mind?'

‘Yes. Somehow it never occurred to me that a big, cheerful,
lazy man like Kâo would take on that sort of unpleasant task himself.'

‘Nor me,' Gregory agreed, ‘although, of course, he may have hired some thug to do it for him.'

For a moment they were silent, and Gregory did some quick thinking. There was at least a possibility that Tû-lai was lying. As an affectionate son he might be throwing all the blame on Kâo with the object of protecting his father's memory. Yet it seemed highly improbable that he had invented the whole story. One point that had emerged quite early in their talk could be taken as proof that he had not. He had readily admitted that the Princess was there in the house, and offered to hand her over on the payment of half a million dollars; so there could be no doubt that he had been telling the truth about how Lin Wân had demanded the sum for her from Kâo. Therefore, there could also be little doubt that Kâo had decided that some advantage to himself was to be gained by accepting Shih-niang as a substitute. But what that advantage could be remained a mystery; as did what had really happened in Tung-kwan, and how far, if at all, Kâo had been responsible for the girl's death.

Finishing his drink, Gregory set down the glass and asked: ‘Have you no idea at all what object your father and Kâo had in getting Shih-niang to play the part of Josephine?'

‘None,' Tû-lai replied. ‘Unless it was as a temporary measure, adopted to prevent the lady A-lu-te making trouble about leaving here without the Princess.'

‘Yes; I thought of that. But it seems hardly likely. I see no reason why Kâo should not have explained to her that half a million dollars' ransom was required, and that he hadn't got it.'

‘True. Perhaps, though, it was a temporary measure designed to give Kâo time to raise the money; and it was intended to send the real Princess on to him as soon as he had paid up.'

‘That is certainly possible. But, if so, why should the carrying out of the plan have necessitated Shih-niang's
death? And, more inexplicable still, why should it have been decided to kill her long before Kâo could get to a place where he had any chance of raising the money? Even if it had been regarded as essential to prevent her from revealing the secret of her temporary imposture after her usefulness had ceased, that does not make sense.'

‘I agree. It is quite impossible to formulate any plausible theory on the limited information we have at present. Still, there is a chance that I may come across something among my father's papers which will throw more light on the matter.'

Gregory sat forward eagerly. ‘Do you really think so?'

‘Yes. My father was a very secretive man but also a very methodical one. He made careful notes of all his transactions and in addition kept several diaries dealing with various aspects of his affairs.' Tû-lai paused and waved a hand towards the stacks of papers on his desk and several shelves of files locked behind a grille at the far end of the room, and added, ‘But you can see for yourself that it will take me weeks to go through them all.'