The Cat and the King

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Maybe not,” she answered, just the shadow of rebuke in her voice. “Let me explain, as I have already explained to» Mr. Bethell. The—the gentleman whose name I have just shown you has definite information that within the next three weeks Japan is going to make her biggest stroke in Korea. Marquis Ito is to come over here and force the emperor to sign away the sovereignty of his country under a Japanese protectorate. Japan has sounded England and the United States on the move, and has been told that if she can twist affairs around so as to make it appear that the request for a protectorate comes from the emperor himself there will be no notice of the steal taken by London or Washington. But—and understand this point—Japan knows that Germany and especially Russia, whom she is trying her best to conciliate now the war is over, would not countenance a grab without some show of Korean willingness.” The clear, lilting notes of her speech, and the heavy, blurred accents of a voice I knew instantly to be Hagiwara’s, drew steadily nearer, until finally I judged by the sound that they had paused directly below the library balcony whereon I was standing. I was placed in the very willing position of an eavesdropper. You will understand,” I stuttered in his ear, “you will not think it cowardice on my part if I—if I see this thing through. The Girl—Shanghai—you?” No, Mr. Hagiwara,” I heard the Girl say, “I do not flatter myself in the least that I receive such close attention from you. I have heard what your business is here in Seoul.” Bethell and I managed to gain from the excited patriot some idea of the plans for the kidnaping of the emperor which he and the Girl had formulated between them. No one, not even old Bugs’ ministers, who were believed to be loyal, was to be in the secret. His majesty had been persuaded without much argument to leave his half-witted son behind. He was to disguise himself as one of the palace mutang when the time came for the secret departure, leave the palace in the company of the prince by one of the devious rear passages through the women’s quarter, and find horses waiting in a corner of the deserted deer park. Bethell and I were to be waiting outside of the little-used North Gate in the city's walls, to convey the old gentleman to the yacht.

My head was in a whirl; my heart pounded so that I could hardly draw breath. Suddenly resolution came to me. I dismounted and drew Bethell aside. Oh, Billy,” she said with a little gasp and dropping the playful formality of the mister, “pray for me that I may keep Hagiwara here for another hour. The crisis is on at the palace. Hagiwara possesses a dreadful sixth sense of premonition, and he has been trying to make a break for the old emperor’s audience chamber ever since I arrived. He must not; he ——”

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Prince Min Yung, in his excitement, acted for us the craven old monarch, eyes roving and palsied hands trembling in alternate gusts of hope and of despair. It was midnight. The Girl stood by my side on the yacht as it rushed full speed down the yellow Han on the way to the sea. We were by the rail. I had dared to cover her hand with mine, and to press her arm against my side in a little heartening, comradely grip. The Girl was weeping, and she made no show of concealing it. At last she raised her eyes, all wet, to mine, and looked at me a long time. My friend,” she said, turning a quiet smile into my eyes as I sat by her side in the state carriage which had been sent to fetch us, “this is the biggest game I’ve ever stalked, and—and I am supremely happy.” Bethell, scarce able to restrain his excitement, met me at the hotel. He dragged me into the deserted bar, helped himself to a hooker of rum, tossed it down, and spoke. On and on in silence, the Girl and I riding together behind. We heard the wailing and the muffled, pleading accents of the emperor’s voice, punctuated as the jolting of his mount jerked the words from him. The senile old man was crying like a child who is being dragged to bed against his will.

Little Hagiwara, Hasegawa’s Man Friday, used to drop spiteful hints about Bethell’s newspaper being subsidized by the Russians; I never believed him, knowing that Bethell, in his blind, bull-charging way, was convinced of the iniquity of Japan’s actions in the Land of the Morning Calm, and was quite sincere in tilting at the big windmill of Japanese diplomacy with his puny pen. A clear voice came down from the head of the stairs above just as we were moving from the bar out into the central hallway. Mr, Billy,” she said, “we’ve got to play the game apart for the next few days. I cannot afford to see Bethell or be seen with him. I am not so sure that you are on the list of the ‘unco guid’ with little Hagiwara, either. But Prince Min Yung will provide a way for me to pass messages to both of you without being detected.” Listen, my dear friend.” Her voice was low, and there was a certain rough huskiness in it as of emotion, scarce restrained. “We must not forget—Bethell, and you, and I—that the loser in this game will pay, yes, heavily. Only since I have been here have I realized how desperate are the forces against which we are matched. All three of us might drop out of sight in this ghostly whirlpool of intrigue, and there wouldn’t be a ripple to mark our disappearance.” That wonderful woman,” the prince murmured over and over again. “She has held the heart of the emperor in her hand since first she came to the palace. The minutes that we have been alone, his majesty, and the artist, and I, have been hundreds of golden years for the hope of Korea. Now the emperor is hot—now he is cold. Once he says that he will fly, and the light in that woman’s eyes is beautiful to see; then he shivers on his seat of state and says that he cannot go.”

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Dear Mr. Billy: Would it be troubling you too much to run down to Chemulpo some time this evening so that you may expedite through all the horrid port regulations a party of friends of mine—hunters after tigers or some other dreadful animals—who are coming from Chefoo on their yacht? I received word that they were coming some time to-night or early to-morrow morning; but they seemed in doubt whether in the disturbed condition of the country they and their guns would be mistaken for a filibustering expedition. I know that as a customs officer you will be able to render them some very much appreciated Service. They choose Number 37 Castle Close, and the cat introduces the King to all sorts of new experiences, from washing-up to shopping. Why did you send a spy to search my trunk the first night I was in Seoul?” There was a pitiful catch and quaver in the putting of that question; outraged dignity called for reparation. I had completely forgotten the garden party in the swirl of events, though, as an official of the Korean government, I had been formally invited several days before. A simple celebration of the Japanese emperor’s birthday we had supposed it would be—the Girl and I; now it was plain that in honor of Japan’s greatest statesman the event had been planned.

Bethell and I both itched to know who she was and what she could be doing in Seoul, where mighty few white women except missionaries and the wives of diplomats ever come. We raced through our meal and got Looie aside out in the bar to tell us all he knew. Looie shrugged his shoulders and cast his eyes to the ceiling. What, your majesty!’ says this woman of the burning hair. ‘Are you not emperor, lord of all in earth? Will you be fooled to your destruction by these traitorous witch doctors? See, I am painting the face of a monarch—not of a fool.’ And at that his majesty falls to weeping and calling himself an idiot. Oh, gentlemen! Tragedy and comedy were there, too strong to bear.”

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But the scream of the cat was nothing to the curdling yell which followed on the instant. It was the voice of the emperor. The Japanese bubbled and gurgled in his effort at denial. Never, never had he entertained such a thought. It was impossible. Beyond belief.