Noble House

He had tiptoed to her room and opened her door but she was fast asleep. When he had left this morning he had had to knock twice to awaken her. "Adryon! It's 6:30."
"Oh! Is it raining?" she said sleepily.
"No. Soon will be. Shall I open the blinds?"
"No, Father dear, thank you . . . doesn't matter, Martin won't … won't mind." She had stifled a yawn. Her eyes had closed and, almost instantly, she was deep asleep again.
Amused, he had shaken her lightly but she had not come out of sleep. "Doesn't matter, Father. Martin won't . . ." And now, remembering how lovely she was and what his wife had said about the pill, he decided to make a very serious check on Martin Haply. Just in case.
"Ah, tai-pan, sorry to keep you waiting."
Dunross got up and shook the outstretched hand. "It's good of you to see me, Mr. Tip. Sorry to hear about your cold."
Tip Tok-toh was in his sixties, graying, with a round nice face. He wore a dressing gown and his eyes were red and his nose stuffed, his voice a little hoarse. "It's this rotten climate. Last weekend I went sailing with Shitee T'Chung and I must've caught a chill." His English accent was slightly American, perhaps Canadian. Neither Dunross nor Alastair Struan had ever been able to draw him out about his past, nor had Johnjohn or the other bankers any knowledge of him in banking circles in Nationalist China days, pre-1949. Even Shitee T'Chung and Phillip Chen who entertained him lavishly could not pry anything out of him. The Chinese had nicknamed him the Oyster.
"The weather has been bad," Dunross agreed pleasantly. "Thank God for the rain."
Tiptop motioned to the man beside him. "This is an associate, Mr. L'eung."
The man was nondescript. He wore a drab Maoist jacket and drab trousers. His face was set and cold and guarded. He nodded. Dun-ross nodded back. "Associate" could cover a multitude of positions, from boss to interpreter, from commissar to guard.
"Would you like coffee?"
"Thank you. Have you tried vitamin C to cure your cold?" Patiently Dunross began the formal chitchat that would precede the real reason for the meeting. Last night while he was waiting for Brian Kwok in the Quance Bar he had thought Johnjohn's proposal was worth a try so he had phoned Phillip Chen then and asked him to request an appointment early today. It would have been just as easy to have called Tiptop direct but that was not correct Chinese protocol. The civilized way was to go through a mutually friendly intermediary. Then, if the request was refused, you would not lose face, nor would the other person, nor would the intermediary.
He was listening to Tiptop with only half his head, making polite conversation, surprised they were still speaking English, because of L'eung. This could only mean the man's English was also perfect, and, possibly, that he did not understand either Cantonese or Shanghainese which Tiptop spoke and Dunross was fluent in. He fenced with Tiptop, waiting for the opening that at length the banker would give him. Then it came.
"This stock market crash on your stock must be very worrying for you, tai-pan."
"Yes, yes it is, but it's not a crash, Mr. Tip, just a readjustment. The market ebbs and flows."
"And Mr. Gornt?"
"Quillan Gornt is Quillan Gornt and always snapping at our heels. All crows under heaven are black." Dunross kept his voice matter-of-fact, wondering how much the man knew.
"And the Ho-Pak mess? That's a readjustment too?"
"No, no that's bad. I'm afraid the Ho-Pak's out of luck."
"Yes, Mr. Dunross, but luck hasn't much to do with it. It's the capitalistic system, that and ineptness by Banker Kwang."
Dunross said nothing. His eyes flicked momentarily to L'eung who sat stiffly, immobile and very attentive. His ears were concentrated and so was his mind, seeking the oblique currents under what was said. "I'm not party to Mr. Kwang's business, Mr. Tip. Unfortunately the run on the Ho-Pak's spilling over to other banks and that's very bad for Hong Kong and also, I think, bad for the People's Republic of China."
"Not bad for the People's Republic of China. How can it be bad for us?"
"China is China, the Middle Kingdom. We of the Noble House have always considered China to be the mother and father of our house. Now our base in Hong Kong's under siege, a siege that's actually meaningless—just a temporary lack of confidence and a week or so of cash. Our banks have all the reserves and all of the wealth and strength they need to perform … for old friends, old customers and ourselves."
"Then why don't they print more money if the currency's so strong?"
"It's a matter of time, Mr. Tip. It's not possible for the mint to print enough Hong Kong money." Even more patiently, Dunross answered the questions, knowing now that most were for the benefit of L'eung, which suggested L'eung was senior to Tiptop, a more senior Party member, a nonbanker. "Our interim solution would be to bring in, at once, a few aircraft loads of pounds sterling to cover withdrawals." He saw both men's eyes narrow slightly.
"That would hardly support the Hong Kong dollar."
"Yes, yes our bankers know that. But Blacs, the Victoria and Bank of England decided this would be best in the interim. We just don't have enough Hong Kong cash to satisfy every depositor."
The silence thickened. Dunross waited. Johnjohn had told him he believed the Bank of China did not have substantial reserves of pounds because of the currency restrictions on their movement in and out of Britain but had very substantial amounts of Hong Kong dollars for which there were no export restrictions.
"It would not be at all good for the Hong Kong dollar to be weakened," Tip Tok-toh said. He blew his nose noisily. "Not good for Hong Kong."
"Yes."
Tip Tok-toh's eyes hardened and he leaned forward. "Is it true, tai-pan, that the Orlin Merchant Bank won't renew your revolving fund?"
Dunross's heart picked up a beat. "Yes."
"And true that your fine bank will not cover this loan or advance you enough to stave off the Rothwell-Gornt attack on your stock?"
"Yes." Dunross was very pleased to hear the calm quality of his voice.
"And true that many old friends have refused credit to you?"
"Yes."
"And true that the … the person Hiro Toda arrives this afternoon and requires payment for ships ordered from his Japanese shipyards shortly?"
"Yes."
"And true that Mata and Tung and their Great Good Luck Company of Macao have tripled their normal order for gold bullion but will not help you directly?"
"Yes." Dunross's already fine-tuned concentration increased.
"And true that the running-dog Soviet hegemonists have once more, impudently, very very impudently, applied for a banking charter in Hong Kong?"
"I believe so. Johnjohn told me they had. I'm not sure. I would presume he would not tell me a falsehood."
"What did he tell you?"
Dunross repeated it verbatim, ending, "Certainly the application would be opposed by me, the boards of all British banks, all the tai-pans and the governor. Johnjohn also said the hegemonists had the temerity to offer immediate and substantial amounts of HK dollars to assist them in their present trouble."
Tip Tok-toh finished his coffee. "Would you like some more?"
"Thank you." Dunross noted that L'eung poured and he felt he had achieved a great step forward. Last night he had delicately mentioned the Moscow bank to Phillip Chen, knowing that Phillip would know how to pass the information on, which would of course indicate to such an astute man as Tiptop the real reason for the urgent meeting and so give him the necessary time to contact the decision-maker who would assess its importance and ways to acquiesce or not. Dunross could feel a sheen of sweat on his forehead and prayed that neither of the men opposite him noticed it. His anxiety would push the price up—if a deal was to be made.