Wang the Ninth Part 4

They darted across the broad brick platform to the inner parapet, crouching low as they ran, for there was a guard-house a few hundreds yards away. Without a word the first man went over, then the second, then the third, each making the dizzy descent slowly, cautiously, their backs to the wall at the angle where the b.u.t.tress juts out squarely--walking down sedately like human flies--which is a trick which may be occasionally seen even to this day, and is possible because of the innumerable crevices which time and water-erosion have worked into the brickwork.

The boy watched them from top, and memorized as well as he could every step, as he studied all the cracks and interstices in the mammoth defence. But when his turn came he found that his stretch was smaller than that of a full-grown man and that the strain was great both on arms and legs. Half-way down he became a little tired and a little afraid.

But with iron resolution he conquered the shaking of his knees and the faintness in his heart; and at length won the battle and jumped the last six feet, falling and lying on the ground panting whilst his leather bottles rolled near him.

"It is nothing," he remarked, as his breath returned. "If I were full-grown I could do it with my eyes blindfolded in less than a week.

It is nothing and less dangerous than a swaying tree-top."

"This boy has too much courage," said one man morosely. "We have done ill to take him. This courage will lead to rashness. Who knows where it will lead!"

So had spoken the representative of a society so const.i.tuted that its safety is held endangered by any one who displays contempt for the all-pervading caution. w.a.n.g the Ninth did not know about these things, and certainly would not have cared if he had. He was just a small human animal, amazingly self-reliant and amazingly resourceful. His pride had been deeply hurt by his father's public insult of him. There was consequently a ma.s.s of sullen rage deep down in his heart--a ma.s.s as solid and as heavy as a cannon-ball. For of all things that you may say, even in the sharpest disputes, there is one which must be sedulously avoided. Between father and son this rule is iron. The father had broken the rule and so it was better for the son to carry leather bottles of wine up the city wall than to remain at his side. Beyond this the boy did not reason much although he medidated endlessly as he worked at his new trade. Sometimes the smugglers were detected by the guards and then there was a confused _sauve-qui-peut_ to the sound of a few shots that made a great deal of noise but were comparatively harmless. Once, however, one of his mates lost courage and fell a considerable distance, breaking some bones and stopping the whole enterprise for days; for the smugglers were at bottom a miserable lot who had lost all real courage through years of stealth.

One day something prompted him to give them the slip, and very calmly he marched down the outer street of the suburb which led to his father's hut watching narrowly to see how his return was taken.

His acquaintances greeted him with cries of astonishment. "Here is w.a.n.g the Ninth back again!" they exclaimed, crowding round him. "See, he has a red girdle round his waist and new clothing on his back."

But he shook them off and ran on when they attempted to cross-question him; for he was of a loyal nature and moreover had no intention of allowing the world to know what a nefarious occupation he had been engaged in.

Near his home some of his former play-mates, still secretly admiring his independent att.i.tude and a certain roughness he had sedulously cultivated, said to him in discreet voices:

"You ought to have come sooner. Your father has been sick these many days. Had it not been for the neighbours he would have fared ill indeed.

Money and food are lacking."

Now he hastened on. His bravado had vanished and there was gloom in his heart. In some trepidation he opened the door of his father's hut and walked in, watched from the street by all his youthful friends.

Inside, stretched on the rude bed of boards, lay his father, quite motionless and covered in a sheep-skin coat, although the weather was warm.

"I have returned," said the son, coming up to him and speaking in his quick city vernacular which was so unlike his father's slow uncouth country speech. "How has this happened?" he added, bending down now. The resentment within him had faded, for was this not his father?

The sick man only groaned for reply, fixing on him gla.s.sy eyes.

"How is it?" repeated the youth in the query which every one in the country uses a dozen times a day, and feeling at a loss what to do. He had never before been confronted with the phenomenon of physical collapse. It left him awkward and chagrined.

"It is fever," mumbled the father at length sighing heavily. "If there were money for medicine it might be better. But the neighbours have given me freely and I cannot borrow more."

"I will attend to it," said the stripling, and with that he marched out again and down the street to a shop with a gaudy gilt front and a ma.s.sive counter covered with blue cloth.

"Medicine for fever," he said, abruptly putting down a piece of silver, and leaning against the counter to see that full weight was given him.

Presently he received twenty-four little packets done up in rough brown paper which were guaranteed to be the very best of the herbalist's art.

With these in his hand he marched back and settled down to the task of tending his sick parent. He displayed the same phlegm he had shown in the smuggling of wine. Three times a day he drew water from the common well and lit the fire and boiled congee, and bought things as if he had been trained to housework all his life; for this curious nation is like that--all can settle to any task with patience and ease. But his father instead of getting better, became worse. Sometimes for many hours he lay without speaking or moving, and the boy frowning deeply, became gloomy and very silent.

"It is a bad business," he said to the neighbours when they met him on the street. "He makes no progress."

One night he was awakened from a dead sleep by the man's cries and the thrusting movements of his arms. He sprang up and lit the tallow candle in great alarm. His father was sitting up catching at his throat and gasping for breath, a hideous sight, with his forehead so long unshaven and his queue so unkempt. The boy tried to give him water but the bowl fell from the palsied hand. He picked it up and supported the sufferer but with a sudden twist the man turned over and died.

w.a.n.g the Ninth, in the presence of death, cried aloud like a frightened animal and then ran to the door, shouting that his father was dead. He had never seen death come before--it came to him as an injustice rather than a blow. He wished others to measure it as he measured it: wished them to realize the drama. But the neighbours were sunk in sleep and when he beat on their doors he only heard them stir and mutter that the fire-devils which prowl at night were around. Nothing would induce them to open although they must have plainly heard the boy's voice.

So quaking with fear he crept back at last and sat with his head on his knees and his teeth chattering looking at the rec.u.mbent motionless figure and waiting for dawn.

When daylight came he went out and the neighbours came willingly enough then, in a never-ending stream to stare and make comments. He mourned loudly, beating himself on the breast and looking very miserable, death being an important and ceremonious event and being so considered by all.

As there were no relatives, the headman of the locality came and made a rude inventory, and then reported the case to the coffin-guild who prepared a suitable coffin and sent two men with lime to pack the corpse. All the children of the neighbourhood stood in a crowd together at the door, watching and trying to see every movement, for a burial is like a marriage and never fails to awaken interest, the one being the ending of life, just as the other is its procreation.

For a day or so things remained like that with the coffin in the hut.

Then when everything was in order, they dressed him in coa.r.s.e white mourner's cloth and placed a cap of the same material on his head, and the coffin was lifted up by four men on carrier's poles; and preceded by a fellow blacksmith, who carried paper money to be burnt in imitation shoes of silver (such as the dead man had never dreamed of in his life) and followed by the mourning boy, the coffin was carried to the temple of the locality, pending formal disposal.

CHAPTER IX

This humble affair settled, the elders of neighbourhood gathered to decide what should become of the boy and how the debt which had been incurred for the burial and the sickness should be met. The amount realized by the few effects left was barely sufficient to pay one half, and it was necessary by some means to find security for the balance. The boy was the last unliquidated a.s.set.

He had been given shelter in a house near by; and when he heard that they were debating the question of apprenticing him to a big foundry just inside the city gate so that his work might liquidate the debt, he became alarmed.

After much silent cogitation he felt his belt, and finding a coin or two still left, he decided to have his destiny settled once and for all.

Slipping quietly down the street, he came to a grave old man seated at a table by the roadside who cast horoscopes.

Without a second's hesitation he placed his money on the table; and sat down obediently on the bare wooden bench to learn his fate.

Every Chinese is possessed of eight characters--four of the Ten Heavenly Stems and four of the Twelve Earthly Branches; and it is by means of these, combined with the Five Elements, that the future may be known. By indicating the year, month, date and hour of birth, which are taught to children at a very early age, the group of eight characters is a.s.sembled: then there remains the question of discovering which of the Five Elements, that is metal, wood, water, fire or earth, is to dominate the group and how the interpretation is to be read. The most skilled use the Book of Changes, which was in common use some thirty centuries ago, and by this method see clearly into some scores of years. But there are common fellows who work as well on a simpler system.

w.a.n.g the Ninth believed implicitly in all this as a European child believes in the Biblical story of Creation. The truth of it was so immanent that it was a mere manifestation of scholars.h.i.+p to ascertain the precise facts. So he settled himself on the hard wooden bench all attention while the old man peered at him over his spectacles, and arranged the little painted squares with their distinctive characters as he replied to the questions. Presently he had all the data complete--save for the determination of the element which would control him. When he learnt that he was a blacksmith's son he put all the elements aside save metal and fire; with these two in his fingers he consulted his books.

"You were born by fire," he said at last. "That is quite clear to me from the insistence with which your year indicative is repeated under the fire-element. By fire you will live and be tested. Wait till I combine: then we may see how the future grows."

With that he swept the fire-character into the heap of Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches: he shuffled the lot slowly backwards and forwards under his hands as a priest performs a rite. Then he took three ancient coins and shook them in a goblet: three times he repeated the process so that he should acquire the necessary guidance. He noted swiftly with the aid of his brush their import on a piece of red paper, and muttered to himself at the insistence with which the original indications were repeated.

w.a.n.g the Ninth sat stone-still watching every movement. A soldier with a bundle of clothing on his shoulder had stopped in idle curiosity: there was another wayfarer or two as well. All these people were silent in the presence of learning; for each one of them at the appointed season would consult such a man regarding marriage or distant journeys or the settling of any important business.

Now the old man stopped his shuffling motion abruptly, aligned the characters, and drank in their meaning as a scholar does a clear script.

The onlookers crowded forward so as not to miss a word.

"Born by fire," he began, "you are in opposition to water--yet are you attracted by it. Everything from water must influence you. By water, rivers and oceans are meant: dominated will you be by something from over the sea which will shape your life and violate your ancestry."

He consulted a book.

"Yet fire will return to you. By fire will you be tested. See here is it written--strange men shall lift you up and great perils shall you face but you will not flinch. Stormy will be your life, but finally successful. Violent death will approach you but you will survive. Your destiny is with unaccustomed things which will come upon you before you are yet a man and drag you far away. So is it written. I would scan your features."

The boy rose and put his strong ugly face close to the learned one who now murmured:

"Confirmatory signs are evident in the features. The mouth, colour, nose, ears are good, but there is lacking the proper heaviness of eyebrow. Guard against being turned from your purpose, for there is weakness in your eyebrows. Now the hands?"

The boy held out his hands but the old man did not consult the palms: he was interested only in the shape.

"The fire-test," he murmured, "everywhere the fire-test. In four places is the character written as clearly as with the brush. Go, I have told you all."

"But the year of the test, may I not learn the year?"

The old man muttered to himself.