After A-lu-te had left Gregory, Ah-moi and the elderly doctor looked in to see him. The latter was much surprised to find that the sick man’s treatment of himself had had such excellent results, but both congratulated him heartily on his recovery, then cracked the sort of jokes about his misadventure in which the Chinese unfailingly delight.
It was true enough, as they suggested, that the purge had probably done him more good than harm; as, now that the soreness in his throat and stomach had worn off, he felt as fit as ever he had been. He was by nature the lean type, and when young had held the belief that violent exercise was not only liable to strain the heart but often led to surplus fat later when hard games had to be given up. Occasional tennis, shooting, fencing, gardening and bouts of ju-jitsu had proved sufficient to keep his muscles in good trim, and he looked forward without the faintest misgiving to the night’s encounter, should A-lu-te’s promised provocation of Wu-ming produce one.
Lunch and the afternoon’s routine of a nap, a little reading, then casual talks over the tiny tea cups with some of the officers passed off as usual. Foo, as he had himself suggested, acted as taster when presenting Gregory with his before-dinner cocktail, and over the meal A-lu-te exercised her wit with even more sparkle than was her wont, keeping her end of the table in roars of laughter. Only Gregory could guess that her bubbling chatter was largely due to suppressed excitement, and when they left the saloon he could hardly contain his curiosity to learn what means she would adopt to develop a situation.
As was their custom, with Wu-ming in attendance they retired to A-lu-te’s canvas-walled sanctum in the stern; but nothing out of the ordinary was destined to happen there for some time to come, because Kâo joined them shortly afterwards. It happened that he was in a reminiscent mood and, after some general conversation, he settled down comfortably with his hands folded over his paunch to tell them of his gambling exploits, when he had taken time off from his job of Export Manager to pay visits to Deauville and Monte Carlo. On any other calm night, sitting there under the awning watching the phosphorescent wake of the ship fade away into the distance, Gregory and A-lu-te might have enjoyed listening to these tales of freak runs, lucky coups, and last-minute reversals of fortune; but as things were they could only suffer them in silence.
At length Kâo yawned prodigiously, declared himself ready for bed and asked if the others were coming. A-lu-te replied no; she thought it would be nice to dance for a while first, and asked Gregory to put some records on her gramophone. There was nothing at all unusual in that, as since Gregory had taught her to dance in San Francisco they had kept it up with a turn or two on deck most nights when weather permitted.
Kâo wished them good night, they all stood up with the politeness of well-bred Chinese to bow him away, then Gregory started up the gramophone and took A-lu-te decorously in his arms. Again as usual at these sessions, Wu-ming settled himself a little more deeply in his chair to watch his beloved’s every movement.
For three numbers, with the half-smile on her face that was habitual to her at these times, A-lu-te continued to dance sedately and, apparently, quite happily. Then, as the music stopped for the third time, she suddenly snatched herself from Gregory and rounded on Wu-ming.
Simulating anger long suppressed that had at last burst its bounds, she stormed at him, ‘Why must you always sit there staring at us like that? Have you neither manners nor discretion? Out of pity I have borne with you for far too long! Are you so stupid that you cannot see when you are unwanted? Have we not made it plain enough that there are times when we wish to be alone? Get out of my sight! Go to bed! Go anywhere; but leave us to amuse ourselves as we please!’
Gregory was filled with admiration for the act she had put on. He had feared that at the last moment she might feel squeamish about hurting Wu-ming’s feelings, but she had gone the whole hog with a vengeance, and if Wu-ming failed to react there could be no putting it down to her having taken half measures. Without moving a muscle, but ready for anything, Gregory kept his eyes fixed on the Chinaman.
At A-lu-te’s first onset, as much astonishment as any Celestial ever permits himself to show had appeared on Wu-ming’s broad face. Then he slowly rose to his feet, bowed solemnly, and said in a half-strangled voice:
‘This person was entirely unaware that his presence was unwelcome, and is deeply humiliated to realise his lack of perception. He had yet to learn that the sparrow may not delight his eyes by gazing on the bird of paradise without giving offence. While hoping to receive pardon for his own shortcomings, he also prays that the lady A-lu-te may never have cause to regret the deterioration in her manners which has resulted from her contact with the West.’
Bowing again, first to A-lu-te, then to Gregory, he turned and walked quietly away through the gap between the ship’s rail and the end of the starboard screen.
Gregory let out a sharp breath. It was the perfect exit; a thing always to be remembered as an example of dignity maintained under great stress. He felt that their little plot had been cheap and unworthy; and it could not have failed more dismally to produce the result for which he had hoped.
Glancing at A-lu-te, he saw that two patches of rouge stood out on her high cheek bones, no longer blending harmoniously with the golden skin of her cheeks, and that even her lips had gone pale. Wu-ming’s parting shot had been well-aimed, and must have hurt her cruelly. She was on the point of bursting into tears, and Gregory realised that he must do something to restore her morale without loss of a moment.
Stepping over to the gramophone, he quickly put on the record of one of her favourite tunes which fortunately lay handy, switched the machine on and, taking hold of her, swung her into a dance.
She did not resist, but her steps were automatic and lifeless. Gazing up at him with tears in her eyes, she murmured, ‘How could I have done that?’
‘You did it for my sake,’ he told her, ‘although I realise now that I never ought to have let you. Don’t take what he said too badly. He knows as well as I do that at heart you are a sweet and gentle person, and would never have acted in that way of your own accord. When he has had time to think things over he’ll be certain to decide that I have been nagging at you all through the voyage to get rid of him. And, anyhow, it seems you’ve proved your point.’
His rather specious argument appeared to afford her some consolation, as the tears ceased to well into her eyes, and after a moment she said, ‘I shan’t feel so badly at having lost face with him if I can regard it as the price of protecting you from Foo. You’ll get rid of him now, won’t you?’
‘Yes,’ he agreed, making an effort to keep the reluctance out of his voice. He knew that he could not possibly go back on his promise, nor, since she had carried out her part of their bargain so fully, had he any excuse for asking her to release him from it. She had made it unmistakably clear that her reason for wanting Wu-ming out of the way was so that she could be alone with him, and it struck him now that while Wu-ming had stigmatised her manners he had made no comment at all on the blatant implication of her outburst. Gregory wondered if his reticence had been due to a remarkably high degree of self-discipline, or if he had temporarily been so stunned by the violence of his dismissal that the moral aspect of the matter would not dawn upon him till later.
As the music stopped A-lu-te said, ‘I don’t think I want to dance any more.’ But Gregory had no intention of allowing her to go to her cabin yet awhile, as he felt that if he could first cheer her up a little she would be much less likely to give way to a fit of remorse when she got there. Giving her a wicked little smile, he asked:
‘Isn’t it rather a pity to throw away an opportunity like this? It is a sure thing that Wu-ming won’t go and tell anybody how we packed him off; not for the time being, anyhow. And as he has always spent the evenings with us, Su-sen and that dirty spy, P’ei, will be in bed by now; so we’ve a perfectly good excuse for not summoning one of them to act as chaperon. For once we might dance like a couple who are really enjoying themselves.’
A-lu-te knew what he meant. In the San Francisco hotels she had seen many couples tightly embraced moving as one body with cheek pressed to cheek, and had envied them their freedom to abandon themselves to the magic of the music in a way that was denied to her by the strictness of Chinese convention. The temptation was too much for her and she nodded.
Having changed the record, he took her firmly in his arms and laid his cheek against her smooth black hair. For the first time he could feel her heart beat, and for a few moments it raced a little at this unaccustomed contact, then it steadied and she gave herself up to the delight of the rhythm.
For over half an hour they danced together, speaking little, but with a smoothness and enjoyment that they had never known before. Gregory was fairly satisfied that she had now got over the worst of her emotional upset, but he wanted if possible, to send her off to bed in a really happy frame of mind. Ever since she had virtually adopted him, in the curiously mixed capacity of pseudo-slave-teacher-friend, he had deliberately refrained from paying her any compliments on her physical attractions, in order to avoid giving her any grounds for mistakingly supposing that he was falling in love with her. But now, knowing how much women appreciate such things, he thought he might pay her one without her putting any wrong construction on it. As the music stopped again, he said:
‘You know, your hair feels as smooth as satin, and it smells heavenly.’
They still had their arms about one another, and turning her face up to his she replied with a smiled, ‘That is just the sort of nice thing one might have expected a Chinese to say. We attach so much more importance to a person’s smell than you do in the West.’ Her smile became mischievous as she added, ‘Put your nose next to mine, close your eyes and take a long deep breath through your nostrils.’
Returning her smile, he obeyed her, and found the sweet subtle odour that he drew in positively intoxicating. As he opened his eyes hers were laughing at him, and she said softly:
‘There! That was a Chinese kiss.’
On an impulse begotten by that heady fragrance, he murmured, ‘It was a new and lovely experience for me; but I still think our European kiss the more satisfying.’
Her languorous eyes went misty, and she offered him her half-parted lips. Gently he placed his mouth on hers then, gradually increasing the pressure, crushed her slender body to his own.
As he released her she gave a long happy sigh, and whispered, ‘That was a new experience for me. Perhaps there are still a lot of things that we can teach one another.’ Then, taking his hand, she turned to draw him down beside her on the nearby divan.
At that instant the silence was shattered by the sound of running feet. The noise was followed by a shout. Thrusting A-lu-te behind him, Gregory swung round. Wu-ming, his face distorted by fury, was charging at him from the entrance to the lounge. Clutched with both hands above his head, he wielded one of the ship’s big fire-fighting axes. For a moment it seemed that nothing could stop him from cleaving Gregory’s skull from crown to chin.
There were still eight or ten feet between them; but Gregory could not jump back, or step aside. To have done so would have exposed A-lu-te. The push he had given her had sent her sprawling on the divan behind him. If he moved now the gleaming axe would come slicing down to inflict a dreadful wound on one of her knees or thighs. Instantly, he saw that his only chance lay in rushing in. By butting the Chinaman in the stomach he might halt him in mid career and send him over backwards.
With Gregory, in such a situation, to think was to act. Like a tennis player about to serve, he rose on the balls of his feet. For a second he remained poised, then, appearing to bow from the waist until his head was down to chest level, he suddenly launched himself forward. In an attempt to evade him, Wu-ming swerved while still coming on at full speed. That saved him from being rammed right on the solar plexus, but the top of Gregory’s head caught him low down over his left ribs. The axe was already half way through an arc now ending at the base of Gregory’s spine. Only the impact of head on ribs prevented the stroke going home. Its violence brought Wu-ming up short. His body twisted, causing the axe to turn sideways in mid-course. The weight of its steel head tore its wooden haft from his grasp. Staggering back, he let out a scream of rage as it hit the deck, slithered across it and, with a metallic clang, came to rest in the scuppers.
Gregory too had been brought up short. Raising his head, he drew back his clenched fist and slammed it into Wu-ming’s stomach. With a loud grunt the Chinaman doubled up, then fell to his kness.
As he did so Foo came running round the corner of the screen. Shouting abuse he was about to fling himself on Wu-ming, but with a swift gesture Gregory checked him. During the past few awful seconds any help would have been welcome, but now he was completely master of the situation. Wu-ming was attempting to stagger to his feet; Gregory gave him time only to raise his head shoulder high, then hit him a smashing blow under the ear. He reeled over and hit the edge of a small table with his head. Sliding to the deck he lay there moaning.
Foo began to pant out an explanation of his presence. ‘I was waiting about to see you safely to your cabin, Sir,’ he gasped. ‘Ten minutes or more ago I spotted him peering through the lacing between the screens. I knew from the music you must be dancing in here, but I didn’t feel that I had the right to interfere with him watching you. I had to stay some way off, too, otherwise he would have guessed that I was keeping an eye on him. But when I saw him snatch the axe from the rack I came after him at top speed.’
‘Thanks, Foo,’ Gregory said, taking the will for the deed. ‘Had things gone only a little differently you might have arrived in the nick of time to save me.’
With a happy grin, Foo asked, ‘Shall I fetch one of the officers, Sir, to have him put in the clink?’
‘No.’ Gregory cast a glance at the still moaning Wu-ming. ‘I mean to fix him myself. When I’ve done with him he won’t give any more trouble. You needn’t bother to wait up any longer, Foo; and you can leave us now.’
As soon as Foo had disappeared, Gregory seized Wu-ming by the arm, pulled him to his feet, and pushed him into one of the bamboo arm-chairs.
‘Now!’ he said, stepping back a couple of paces. ‘What have you got to say for yourself?’
For a moment Wu-ming did not reply, then he struggled up from the chair, crossed his shaking hands over his middle, bowed and said in a hoarse voice. ‘I have no excuse. None; except that something seemed to snap in my brain. I was watching you through the screens. I saw you … saw you kiss the lady A-lu-te. I endeavoured to restrain myself. For what seemed a long time I fought down a boiling of the blood within me. Perhaps it was for only a few minutes but it seemed as if my agony lasted for an hour. I forced myself to turn away. Then my eye lit upon the axe. My mind became a turmoil. I … I no longer knew what I was doing.’
‘Well, well! Just think of that now.’ Gregory’s voice held a terrible biting sarcasm. ‘And I suppose “something snapped in your brain”, “the blood boiled within you”, and “you no longer knew what you were doing”, when you slipped the poison into my cocktail last night?’
For the second time that evening an expression of near astonishment appeared on Wu-ming’s face, and he stammered, ‘I … your cocktail! No, no. I know nothing of that.’
‘You lying, murdering swine,’ Gregory snarled. Then, with his clenched fist, he hit him a smashing blow right in the centre of his face.
Wu-ming’s widely-spaced eyes opened to their fullest extent, as the bone of his pudgy nose crunched under the blow. With a howl of pain he fell back into the chair. The bamboos had scarcely creaked under the impact of his body before Gregory had seized him by the neck of his blouse, pulled him up, and hit him again.
Four times in quick succession Gregory lugged him to his feet then slammed him back striking each time with savage, remorseless deliberation. His own knuckles were seeping blood from the force of his blows, but the Chinaman’s face was streaming with it. Half his front teeth were loose, one of his eyes was bunged up and his jaw was broken. Between each blow he had given a yell for help, but his shouts were growing weaker when, from along the deck, the sound of running footsteps told that his cries had attracted attention.
Realising that he must now finish matters quickly, Gregory hauled him to his feet again but, instead of striking him, grabbed his right wrist, spun him round and twisted his arm up behind him. ‘Perhaps.’ he said, ‘this will teach you not to have banana crates dropped on people’s heads.’ Then, exerting all his strength, he wrenched the arm upwards. Wu-ming let out a scream of agony, then there came the clear sharp sound of the bone snapping. With a final push Gregory sent the limp tortured body reeling back into the chair.
As he turned away he saw that A-lu-te was still sitting on the divan, but she had covered her face with her hands, and from between them there came a low moaning. Stooping towards her he said:
‘I must apologise for giving such an exhibition of brutality in front of you. But I don’t want to die just yet, and this was my one chance of putting my would-be murderer out of action.’
At that moment several people came pounding round the corner of the screen. Ah-moi was leading, closely followed by the officer of the watch and two sailors.
‘What the hell is going on here?’ bellowed the hefty Captain.
Gregory pointed first to the shuddering, groaning figure in the chair, then to the fireman’s axe lying in the scuppers.
‘He went off his head and tried to kill me. Apparently he took exception to my dancing with the lady A-lu-te; though why he should have done God alone knows, as we’ve danced together most nights since we first went ashore in San Francisco.’
The Captain bent over Wu-ming, and asked, ‘Is what he said true?’
Still gasping with pain Wu-ming heaved himself up a little, and whispered, ‘I … I attacked him, yes; but I did so to protect the lady A-lu-te’s virtue.’
Taking a pace forward, Gregory snapped, ‘Repeat that lie and I will throw you overboard.’
Ah-moi laid a large restraining hand on his shoulder and, turning to A-lu-te, said, ‘Please give me your version of this most distressing affair.’
She had already taken her hands from her face. Large tears were running down her cheeks, but she replied in a perfectly controlled voice: ‘It is true that Mr. Wu-ming Loo attacked Mr. Sallust with the axe, and it is quite untrue that Mr. Sallust was attempting to seduce me.’
The Captain made a sign to his officer. ‘Have Mr. Wu-ming Loo put to bed, and send the doctor to him.’ Then, having given a not unfriendly nod to Gregory, he bowed to A-lu-te and said in a voice that brooked no denial, ‘The strain of witnessing this scene of violence must have quite exhausted you. Permit me to see you to your cabin.’
For the time being that was the end of the matter, and a few minutes later, although it was only just half-past ten, Gregory was getting ready to turn in. As he settled himself in bed, and relived his third narrow escape from death within three weeks, he thought, not for the first time, that it was better to be born lucky than rich. To have put Wu-ming out of the game was a considerable relief; but he was a little worried about the effect that this brutal treatment of his enemy might have had on the delicate susceptibilities of A-lu-te, and the possibility that a formal inquiry would be held, at which Wu-ming would insist, in his own defence, that he had actually caught her ‘slave’ in the act of kissing her.
It transpired that he need not have concerned himself on either count. Next morning A-lu-te greeted him as usual with a smile, and made no mention whatever of the previous evening’s events. Apparently, with the practical philosophy of the Chinese, she had accepted the outcome of their plot as one of those passionate eruptions which occasionally disturb the river of life without preventing its flowing on. Captain Ah-moi’s attitude was somewhat similar. Having sent for Gregory he said he regarded Wu-ming’s outbreak as most regrettable, but that fortunately it had no ill results except to himself; and that, since Gregory had already administered rough justice to his attacker, he hoped that he would spare all concerned further embarrassment by leaving matters as they stood.
Bearing in mind the facts that Ah-moi knew nothing whatever about the poisoned cocktail or the affair of the banana crates, but that he could not have failed to observe Wu-ming’s morbid passion for A-lu-te, so had good grounds for believing him to have been the victim of a temporary aberration, the line the Captain took could not be considered as an attempt to evade his responsibilities. The suggestion that sleeping dogs should be allowed to lie could not have suited Gregory better, and by readily falling in with it he earned both Ah-moi’s esteem for not bearing malice and his gratitude for being freed from having to give further time to the affair, as other matters of major importance were now calling for his attention.
It was their sixteenth day out of San Francisco; so the yacht was now about to cross the major shipping lane that ran down from the great Japanese ports of Yokohama and Nagasaki to Singapore, and thence to Europe. While crossing the great wastes of the Pacific they had sighted less than half-a-dozen ships; but now they might expect to encounter several during the course of a single day and, although they were still well outside any of the war zones, Captain Ah-moi evidently thought the time had come to take precautions against unwelcome questioning.
The first of these struck Gregory as a great piece of impudence, but he was in no situation to prevent it. As soon as their interview was over, Ah-moi asked him to come aft and there, with his own hands, he ran up the White Ensign. Turning to Gregory with a beaming face, he said:
‘There! Previously when sailing in dangerous waters I have always flown the Stars and Stripes, but as I happened to have this in my collection of flags I thought it would be a nice compliment to you. It should prove just as effective and I am proud to sail under it, for your British sailors are the finest in the world.’
‘I … er, appreciate the honour,’ Gregory replied with a somewhat unhappy smile. ‘But isn’t it a bit risky? I mean, you might get into serious trouble if we happen to run into a British warship.’
‘That is true, but very unlikely so far from both Hong Kong and Korea as we shall be during the next few days. And the risk is well worth running. You see, apart from her superstructure, this ship still has the lines of a destroyer, and the range of deck cabins might have been added to convert her into a survey or supply ship; so in the eyes of all but experts she will pass as an auxiliary of the Royal Navy. In consequence, should I refuse to disclose our business or destination in reply to signals, very few Captains would dare to hold us up.’
As this was just the sort of trick that, in similar circumstances, Gregory might himself have played, his disapproval gave place to a sneaking admiration; and, as the day progressed, he had ample opportunity further to admire the capabilities that Ah-moi displayed for blockade running. He ignored junks and other sailing vessels, but each time a smudge of smoke appeared on the horizon he promptly altered course. Once, when two steamers were sighted approaching one another, so that they would pass somewhere ahead of the yacht, he even turned her right round and ran back on his track for half an hour.
These numerous changes of course naturally slowed down the yacht’s progress westwards, but by late afternoon they were approaching a group of tiny islets called the Tokaras about a hundred and thirty miles south of the southernmost tip of Japan. Just before sundown they made a landfall and altered course slightly to pass between two of them.
Meanwhile, as neither the outline of the ship, nor the flag she was flying, would be visible in the darkness, other precautions had been going forward against her being halted and boarded during the night. At Ah-moi’s orders the portholes of all the deck cabins and the upper lounge had been screened, A-lu-te was informed that for the future she must not use her sanctum in the stern after dark, and even the navigation lights were not switched on; so the yacht was totally blacked out.
Wu-ming had not emerged from his cabin all day and Gregory expected that, even if his injuries permitted him to get up, he would remain there for the rest of the voyage rather than expose himself to the loss of face inevitable as a result of his beating. The doctor was treating him with a fearsome mixture of magical formulae and herbal remedies; so, although Gregory knew that the age-long experience the Chinese had had with herbs made many of their ointments valuable, he was not surprised to learn that his victim was still in very poor shape.
However, no open mention of Wu-ming was made over dinner; and after it, as A-lu-te was to grace the upper deck lounge that night, some of the officers had got up a concert for her entertainment. Gregory was rather bored, as he had never been able to acquire an appreciation of Chinese music; but out of politeness he sat through it till it ended at about half-past eleven, and after a little desultory conversation they all went down to turn in. The sky was overcast; so it was very dark, and the ship was proceeding at only half speed through a calm sea. As they dispersed to their cabins and their chatter subsided, Gregory remembered afterwards noticing how almost unnaturally silent the ship became.
At the bridge end of the range of deck cabins there were two bathrooms. The one on the port side was reserved for the passengers and that on the starboard for the senior officers; apart from Ah-moi, who had his own. It so happened that something had gone wrong that morning with the hot-water supply to the passengers’ bathroom, and it was not until Gregory was about to go down to dinner that Foo told him that the repair had been completed; so he had not had a bath that day. As the night was so sultry, and it had been very stuffy in the blacked-out lounge, he decided to freshen himself up with a dip before going to bed.
Gregory’s cabin was at the extreme end of the port range and Wu-ming occupied the one next to him. As he passed it on his way to have his bath no sounds from it attracted his attention; neither did he expect to hear any, as it was reasonable to suppose that by that hour the wretched man had been given a few pipes of opium and gone to sleep. The next three cabins were those of engineer officers, then came Kâo’s, and lastly that of A-lu-te, who had been given the one next to the bathroom.
Having run a luke-warm bath, Gregory splashed about in it for a time then lay still while a variety of thoughts drifted through his mind. The sound of A-lu-te moving about next door came faintly to him, and he wondered a little uneasily if the kiss he had given her the previous night was going to upset their happy relationship. As was not unnatural in a virile man towards an unattached girl who was charming in both mind and body, and in whose company he had spent many weeks, he already felt attracted to her in a way that was not wholly platonic; but Erika’s death was still too near for him to be capable of falling in love with anybody. As far as A-lu-te was concerned, he felt that if she had really fallen for him she would have given some clear indication of it much sooner, but her ready response to his ill-considered impulse had shown that she was equally attracted to him. It looked therefore as if, given further encouragement, she might easily become seriously enamoured of him. That, he felt, would be most unfair to her, and, in view of Chinese convention should they be caught in a compromising situation, highly dangerous for them both. Obviously, therefore, he must watch his step, and, if she made any reference to what had occurred between them, even at the risk of temporarily hurting her, pass the matter off as a piece of fooling that had no significance.
Having taken this decision, he got out of the bath, and dried himself. He had just finished when he heard a shout. As he listened there came another and it sounded like a cry for help. Wriggling into his dressing-gown, he slipped on his shoes, pulled open the door and stepped out on deck.
Outside it was pitch black, except for one bright streak of light some fifty feet away. As far as he could judge it came from Wu-ming’s cabin. Hurrying towards it he saw that the door was wide open and its interior masked only by the curtain.
‘Are you all right?’ he called. There was no reply, so he jerked the curtain aside. Wu-ming’s bed-clothes were tumbled on the floor, but he was not there.
Gregory was still grasping the curtain when a figure came running up out of the darkness. It was little Foo, and on seeing the cabin empty, he exclaimed:
‘Then it was Mr. Wu-ming! I think he’s thrown himself overboard.’
Two more figures appeared, coming from round the end of the range of cabins. They were Kâo and his man P’ei.
‘Did you see what happened?’ Gregory asked quickly.
‘No,’ Kâo wheezed, gasping to get his breath. ‘P’ei was reading me to sleep. We heard a shout and ran out on deck. We thought it came from our side of the ship, but there was no one there. Then we ran across to the other, but there was no one there either.’
By this time shouts and the patter of running feet were coming from all directions. Two of the engineer officers came up behind Gregory and two sailors arriving from the opposite direction only just avoided cannoning into Kâo’s broad back. One of the sailors cried:
‘I told you it wasn’t this side! The struggle I heard took place over to starboard.’
‘Who was it called for help?’ asked one of the engineers.
‘It must have been Mr. Wu-ming Loo,’ Gregory replied. ‘We all know he wasn’t himself, and his cabin’s empty.’
‘He’s thrown himself overboard,’ Foo said again. ‘I feel sure I heard a splash just after those two cries.’
‘What’s all this? What’s happening here?’ boomed Ah-moi’s rich voice, and the beam of a torch suddenly lit up the group.
It was Kâo who answered. ‘No one seems to know for certain, but they say Wu-ming has jumped overboard.’
Turning, the Captain bellowed orders to the bridge for the ship to be put about and her lights switched on. Then he asked Kâo: ‘Who says so?’
‘He is not in his cabin,’ said Gregory, ‘and my man thinks he heard a splash.’
‘I thought I did too, Sir, P’ei now volunteered. ‘As I was still fully dressed I was out of the cabin before Mr. Kâo Hsüan and ran on ahead of him. But I didn’t see anyone.’
‘Yes. I heard the splash distinctly, Sir,’ one of the sailors put in. ‘And before that there were two cries for help.’
‘That’s right,’ added his mate. ‘And there was a struggle.’
‘How do you know?’ Ah-moi asked sharply. ‘You could not have seen anything, owing to the darkness.’
‘I heard it, Sir. Me and my mate had just met in the stern, him coming from the port and me from the starboard. We’d been doing a round of the ship to see that no lights were showing, on orders from the Bosun. There was a trampling of feet. It was not like a man running, but a slithering sound, as if someone was being dragged across the deck.’
‘That’s so,’ chimed in the third officer, who had just come round from the starboard side. ‘I heard that sort of noise through the porthole of my cabin just after the cries had woken me. Then I heard a splash. That’s why I ran aft instead of for’rard. I felt sure someone had gone overboard; so I raced to the stern and threw out a life-buoy.’
Muffled in a heavy coat the old doctor had now joined the group. In a calm voice he addressed Ah-moi. ‘Captain; at night in such darkness sounds are often apt to be misleading. This evening when I visited Wu-ming his mind was much disturbed. I think the explanation of this tragedy is simple. He felt that after the humiliation he had suffered he could not face the future.’
‘Then why did he cry out for help?’ protested the engineer ‘I heard him do so distinctly.’
‘Yes, yes!’ chorused several of the others.
The look-out from the crow’s-nest had just descended his ladder. He said gruffly, ‘I heard the cries, Sir, and focused my night glasses on to the deck. It was so dark down here that I couldn’t see much, except the splash when he went over the side. But I got the impression a moment before that he was struggling with someone.’
‘If you are right, this is no case of suicide,’ said Ah-moi tersely. ‘Somebody threw him over.’
‘No!’ exclaimed Kâo in a shocked voice. ‘I cannot believe it! For taking his own life he had good cause; but who would wish to murder him?’
Slowly Ah-moi turned, looked hard at Gregory, and muttered, ‘Last night …’ He broke off there, but everyone present knew what had happened, and guessed his thought.
A pregnant silence fell. The ring of flat, broad Chinese faces about Gregory took on a new, menacing look, and he found himself the focus of a score of black, accusing eyes. All of them had found him already on the scene of the tragedy when they arrived. With a sudden sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, he now recalled that the night before, in Ah-moi’s presence, he had actually threatened to throw Wu-ming overboard. It was now as clear as if they had cried it aloud that they believed him to be Wu-ming’s murderer; and he had no alibi.