He settled back in his chair and let these facets of himself argue one with another. And he listened to them.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Struan walked up the marble stairs of the company residence, fatigued yet strangely at peace. I’ve done all I can, he thought.
Before he could open the door it was flung wide with a flourish. Lo Chum, the majordomo of the servants of The Noble House in Macao, beamed at him toothlessly.
He was a tiny old man with a face like ancient ivory and a pixie smile, and he had been in Struan’s service ever since Struan could afford a servant. He wore a neat white smock, black trousers and rope sandals.
“Hallo-ah, Tai-Pan. Bath ready, brekfass ready, clotheses ready, wat for Tai-Pan wantshee, can? Never mind.”
“Heya, Lo Chum.” Struan never ceased being wonderstruck at the rapidity with which news traveled. He knew that if, as soon as he had come ashore, he had run the length of the jetty and had gone directly to the mansion, the door would still have been flung open and Lo Chum would have been there as he was now.
“Bath, clotheses can,” Struan said.
“Compradore Chen Sheng been have gone. Say come back nine clock, can?”
“Can,” Struan replied wearily.
Lo Chum closed the door and scuttled ahead of Struan up the marble staircase and opened the door of the master bedroom. The large, iron hip bath was filled with steaming water, as always, a glass of milk was on a small table as always, his shaving gear was laid out, fresh shirt and clothes were on the bed—as always. It’s good to be home, Struan thought.
“Tai-Pan wantshee cow chillo in bath, heya?” A neigh of laughter.
“Ayee yah! Lo Churn. A’ways talkshee werry bad troubles, a’ways talkee jig-jig cow chillo in bath, wat never mind. Wake Mass’er Culum—say here can!” Struan said, getting out of his dirty clothes.
“Mass’er Culum no slep-slep.”
“Where Mass’er go-ah?” Struan asked.
Lo Chum picked up the clothes and shrugged. “A’l night out, Mass’er.”
Struan frowned. “All same, every night, heya?”
Lo Chum shook his head. “No, Mass’er. One, two night slep-slep here.” He bustled out.
Struan immersed himself in the bath, disturbed by the report of Culum’s absences. I hope to God Culum’s sense enough na to go into Chinatown.
Promptly at nine o’clock a rich sedan chair stopped outside the mansion. Chen Sheng, compradore of The Noble House, lowered himself ponderously. His robes were crimson and his hat bejeweled and he was very conscious of his majesty.
He marched up the steps and the door was opened by Lo Chum personally—as always. This gave Chen Sheng great face, for Lo Chum opened the door personally only to the Tai-Pan and to him.
“He is expecting me?” he asked in a dialect of Cantonese.
“Of course, Excellency. I’m sorry to arrange your appointment so early but I felt you would want to be first.”
“I hear he left Hong Kong in frantic haste. Do you know what’s the matter?”
“He went directly to the Tai-Pan of the longskirts and—”
“I know that,” Chen Sheng said petulantly. He could not fathom why Struan had rushed to the monastery. “I really don’t know why I’m so patient with you, Lo Chum, or why I continue to pay you monthly squeeze to keep me informed in these very hard times. I knew the ship was in the harbor before you sent word. Disgusting lack of interest in my affairs.”
“I’m really very sorry, Excellency,” Lo Chum said. “Of course, the Tai-Pan did bring his concubine on the ship.”
“Ah!” Good, he thought. I’ll be glad to pass back the children and have done with that responsibility. “That’s a little better, though I would have been told by others within the hour. What other pearls of information have you that merit so vast a retainer all these years?”
Lo Chum showed the whites of his eyes. “What wisdom could I, a lowly slave, have for such a mandarin as yourself?” He spoke very sadly. “These are hard times, Excellency. My wives harass me for money and my sons spill taels on gambling as though silver grew like paddy. Distressing. Only by preknowledge of great importance can one defend oneself against fate. It is terrible to think that such knowledge could fall into the incorrect ear.”
Chen Sheng played with his queue, instantly aware Lo Chum had very special information.
“I agree. In such hard times as these it is very important—the gods have decreed as much—to assist the impoverished,” he said gravely. “I was thinking of sending you an unworthy gift on behalf of your illustrious ancestors—three roast pigs, fourteen laying hens, two bolts of Shantung silk, a pearl worth ten taels of the purest silver, a fine jade belt buckle of the early Ch’ing Dynasty worth fifty taels, and some incidental sweetmeats and pastries that are quite inadequate for your palate but perhaps you would care to give them to your own servants.”
“A gift of such magnificence I could hardly accept,” Lo Chum said with great deference. “It would put me in your debt forever.”
“If you refuse, then I can only presume that it is an inadequate offering to your illustrious ancestor and I shall lose face.”
At length Lo Chum allowed himself to be persuaded to accept, and Chen Sheng allowed himself to be persuaded that the gift was princely.
“I hear that the Tai-Pan seeks something,” Lo Chum whispered, “because his concubine is very sick. Sick with the fever poison of Hong Kong.”
“What?” Chen Sheng was horrified by the news, but pleased that the amount of the gift had been well spent. “Please go on!”
Lo Chum told him about the doctor and the strange medicine—and all that Ah Sam had whispered this morning to a sampan owner whom Lo Chum had sent to her.
“Rumor has it further that the Tai-Pan has offered twenty thousand taels’ reward. His son, your third wife’s illustrious son and your foster son, has instituted a frantic search for the drug in Hong Kong.”
Chen Sheng’s mind swam with the implications. He motioned to Lo Chum and was guided into Struan’s study.
“Hallo-ah, Tai-Pan,” he said expansively. “Good you see-ah Macao, nev’r mind.”
“Hallo-ah, Chen Sheng,” Struan said. He motioned to a chair. “Sitshee!”
“Boat-ah,
Blue Cloud, come home number one, heya?”
“Doan knowa. Werry wen I say you plenty quickee. Chen Sheng wantshee see my, heya?”
Chen Sheng was worried. He, the leader of the Macao Triads, had been made personally responsible by Jin-qua for the safety of T’chung May-may and her children. Only he, of all Jin-qua’s associates, knew that she was Jin-qua’s granddaughter and that as the Tai-Pan concubine her value to them personally was enormous, and her value to the future Triad cause—which was the cause of China—inestimable. Word that the fleet was returning immediately to Canton instead of going directly to Peking had saved them nearly four millions of taels—a hundred times the cost of May-may’s education. He blessed his joss for May-may; without her he would have had to find a substantial amount of that ransom himself.