“Well, at least I have cleared out a serpent’s nest this day!”
When the people of that town heard of the rebellion in the court there were many who were pleased for they had known what corruption was there, and while some were afraid and waited to see what Wang the Tiger would do next, there were many who came clamoring about the court gates and they cried out that there should be a time of feasting set and that the prisoners ought to be freed out of the gaol so that everyone could rejoice together.
But the one who had benefited most by the uproar, and it was the poor farmer, was not among that crowd. No, although he had been delivered this once he could not believe that any good fortune could be in store for him, and when he heard the usurer had escaped, he groaned and fled back to his land, and he went to his house and crept into his bed and if anyone came to ask his wife or children where he was they said he had gone away somewhere and they did not know where he was.
When Wang the Tiger heard what the people demanded he remembered that there were in the gaol some dozen or so of men whom he had seen thrown in for one unjust cause or another and they were hopeless of coming out, for most of them were poor and had not money enough to secure their freedom. And so he was willing and he told his trusty men to free the people in the gaol, and he called out to his men that they were to have three days of feasting, and he sent for the cooks of the magistrate’s court and he had them come into his presence and he said to them loudly,
“Prepare the best dishes of your native parts, the hot peppery dishes and the fish dishes to go with wine, and everything with which we can make merry.”
He ordered good wines, too, and strings of firecrackers and rockets and all such things as please the people. And everyone was glad.
But just before the trusty men went to fulfill his command concerning those in the gaol Wang the Tiger suddenly thought of something, and it was that woman who was in the gaol, too. He had wanted her out a score of times during this winter, but each time he had not known what to do with her either, so he had contented himself with commanding that she be well fed and not chained as some were. Now when he thought of the prisoners free, he thought of her and he thought to himself,
“But how can I free her?”
And he wanted her free and yet he wanted her not so free that she could go away, and he was astonished at himself when he found he cared whether she came or went. He was astonished at his own heart, and being bewildered, he called his harelipped trusty man secretly into the room, where he slept and he said,
“But what of that woman we had from the lair?”
Then the trusty man answered gravely, “Yes, there is she, and I wish you would let me tell the Pig Butcher to put a knife to her throat in a way he has so that little blood flows.”
But Wang the Tiger looked away and he said, slowly,
“She is only a woman.” And he waited awhile and said, “At least I will see her again, and then I can know what I ought to do.”
The trusty man looked very downcast at this, but he said nothing and went away, and as he went Wang the Tiger called after him that the woman was to be brought at once to him in the hall of justice where he would go to wait for her.
He went into the hall of justice then and stepped up on the dais into the old magistrate’s seat out of some strange impulse of vanity he had, and he thought he would like to have the woman see him there in the great carven seat raised as it was above the other seats, and there was no one to say him nay, for the magistrate did not come out of his own rooms yet, having sent word he was ill of a flux. There Wang the Tiger sat very stiff and haughty and he kept his face smooth and proud as a hero’s ought to be.
At last she came in between two guards, and she wore a plain cotton coat and trousers of some dull blue common stuff. But this common garb was not what had changed her. She had eaten well, and the gauntness of her body was changed to a fulness that was still slender. Pretty she could never be because her face was too marked for prettiness, but she was very bold and beautiful. She came in steadily and freely and she stood before Wang the Tiger, quiet and waiting.
He looked at her in greatest astonishment, for he had not dreamed of a change like this, and he said to the guards,
“Why is she so still now, seeing how mad she was before?”
And they shook their heads and moved their shoulders and said, “We do not know, except that when she went out from our captain last time she went broken and weak as though some evil spirit had passed from her, and she has been like this ever since.”
“Why did you not tell me?” said Wang the Tiger in a low voice. “I would have had her freed.”
The guards were astonished at this and they said to excuse themselves,
“Sir, how could we know that our general cared what came to her? We waited for your commands.”
Then words flew of their own accord to the tip of Wang the Tiger’s tongue and he all but cried them out, “But I do care!” He did but barely stop them for how could he say such a thing out before all these guards and before this woman?
“Loose her from those bonds!” he shouted suddenly.
Without a word they loosed her and she stood free and they all waited to see what she would do, and Wang the Tiger waited also. She stood there as though she were still bound and she did not move. Then Wang the Tiger called out to her sharply,
“You are free — you may go where you will!”
But she answered, “Where shall I go, seeing I have no home anywhere?”
And saying this, she lifted up her head and looked at Wang the Tiger with a sudden seeming simplicity.
At that look the sealed fountain in Wang the Tiger was unstopped and such a passion rushed out into his blood that he began to tremble within his soldiers’ clothes. Now it was his eyes that dropped before hers. Now she was stronger than he. The room was filled with the air of this passion that had been stopped so long and men stirred uneasily and stared at each other. Suddenly Wang the Tiger remembered they were there and he roared at them,
“Get you gone, every one of you, and stand outside the door!”
They went away then, crestfallen, for they saw well enough what had befallen their general, even that which may befall any man, high or low. They went out then, and waited upon the threshold.
When there were none but these two left in the hall, Wang the Tiger leaned forward out of his carven seat and he said in a hard, hoarse voice,
“Woman, you are free. Choose where you will go and I will send one to take you there.”
And she answered simply, with all the boldness gone out of her, except that she could look at him in the eyes while she said it,
“I have chosen already. I am your bondswoman.”
XVII
IF WANG THE TIGER had been a coarse and common man and without feeling for what was lawful and decent he might have taken this woman, since she had no father or brother or any man to stand for her, and he might have done as he liked with her. But that hour in his youth which had been like a blow upon his heart made him fastidious still and it made his pleasure more keen to think he could wait, with all his passion, until he could have her as a wife. Moreover, he wanted her as wife, for mingled with all his personal passion for her, which fell more deeply on him hour by hour, was the craving also to have a son by her, his son, his first-born son, and only a true wife can bear a man his true son. Yes, half of the exultation of his secret longing for her was this, to think what a son they would form between them, he with his power and great tall body and all he had to bestow, and she with her fox-like beauty and her spirit of fearlessness. To Wang the Tiger when he dreamed of it, it seemed his son lived already.