CHINA MAIL CHRISTMAS SUPPLEMENT
SWORD OF
(Continued from Page 6)
RIDICULE
3
The Viceroy lifted a band The Prefect of Police heard a noise behind him and saw, four armed men advancing on him.. His hand dived under his robe, but they had sprung forward and wrenched his pistol from him before he could pull it out. He sat back heavily and glared across at the smiling old man.
"To continue my tale-in this better atmosphere-the brilliant man, broken by injustice, took to opium. The other continued to rise in office.
went by,
true evidence the last
Remember ring.
ring.
"Yet I must ask you to bear in mind one other thing-that the Prefect of Police alone has control of all police and execn- -tion arrangements which can give him a power of illegal manipulation denied any other official. For myself, knowing a. policeman's trust in cunning, 1 sought for many coils of the serpent. At once one wriggled. "The very next morning after the murder it so happened that fourteen pirates were executed.” He waved his delicate hand across the hall. "See that fixed stare? I have touched a coil That is how a serpent wriggles in public by overdoing still-
The Christmas Card chosen this year by the Duke and Duchess of Kent and carried out by Raphael Tuck.
and, two, that then
Eight years the 'scholar's bitterness found voice. He began writing epi- grams and allegorical lampoons ridiculing a high official, prick- ing his pomposity and monst- rous vanity. The Prefect of Police chose to regard them, as pointing at himself. He is sit- ting opposite me As you all know, a bully is the weakest of men, for he has no sense of humour. In his ramen he raged like a man demented as these catchy rhymes and witty lam- after poons" continued month
month, year after year, for three Tears. Often he was heard to swear vengeance and destruc- tion to his enemy.
At last, two months ago, his opportunity came. The unfor- with tunate man was found
hands beside his blood on his murdered wife.
Now, you future Viceroys, ! want you to listen very closely to what is coming. Again my instinet told me the truth. In- stinet! If you have it, trust it The first time I could not pro- tect an innocent man. This time I was in a position to do so. I knew so grand a scholar would not murder a wife he loved.
"Yet publicly I appeared help- less, for the Prefect of Police his ver- successfully obtained dict from the Chief Magistrate, just on one point. He made the Chief Magistrate agree that it was not necessary to establish motive with an opium addict.
In one His exact words were. of his trances the ex-swindler, not knowing what he was doing, stabbed his wife to death. And to invalidate this excuse in the future I demand the death pen- alty.
"Well, my experience was that alcohol produces violence. Opium never-just the opposice, gentleness and peace. But I could not override the Chief Magistrate's sentence, for in point of evidence blood is blood, and the remote possibility of a man murdering in a trance can- not be discounted in law." So I began my inquiries."
•
"But it has taken me, with all my resources, these two months to complete the last link in the
DRINK
RICKSHA BRAND TEA
>
ness.
protest shouted the Pre- fect of Police. TWO OI the guards pulled him down.
A
"Just observe--accuse him of murder and he laughs but touen has vanity and he shouts." chuckie rippled through the hall -Well, it is a weekly arfair, the execution of pirates in Canton. But these loyal wretches always die like brave men. That morn- ing one struggled violently.at sight of the executioner's sword shouting that he was not a all pirate. That night I had fourteen heads dug up and pre- served.
"Now we go back a day, to the night of the murder. The pro- secutor made great play of the circumstance that zo suspicious character had been seer that night near the house of the murdered woman. But my sub- sequent inquiries showed that there had been such a suspici- OUS character a well-known burglar. That protesting pirate was that well-known burglar.
"You see, that burglar had to be got rid of because he was the. murderer of the dead woman. From that moment two other persons had also to be killed, for this is a tale of very skil ful destruction of evidence.
"First, there was the pirate who had not been executed. How was he disposed of? He was sent back to the pirate chief with a letter. You will hear its brilliant contents later.
“Next on the list was, of course, the detective who had ar- rested the burglar.... The mo- ment he arrived back with the easily-found man the Prefect of Police kept him in his own room.
To instruct him in a spe-
cial mission. Do you see the dramatic scene? Here was a pirate in the cells his chief had spared. Why? So that a reli- able detective could follow him and track down the pirate lair!
"Puffed up with flattery the innocent detective at once set off on this gift of a trail, and the next day when he was hot on the letter-bearer's heels, that letter was in the pirate-chief's hands. Made up of words cut from a book or newspaper, it contained two interesting items for the pirate-chief. One, a descrip- tion of the detective's disguise,
the bearer had given away secrets under tor-
ture.
The messenger died a minute after delivering the letter, and the detective the next day. That completes the three murders.
"But I know that all this time there is an unsatisfied thought in most of your minds. In spite of all I have said of the pri soner's character, you are still" asking yourselves this incredi- ble question: How did a man in. his high posicion come to do so 2s to commit stupid a thing murder after murder merely to achieve the death of an innocent man? The answer is simple. Twice before in my life I have seen this same violent .. animal reaction.... The sword of ridi- cale had nicked this vain, man. That is all. Such men stand the rack better than wit.”
"Prove it! Prove it! Prove all you've said!” cried the man held so skilfully in a vice.
"Why should you get so excit- ed? I've written all this in my Memorial If I can't prove such serions charges, it is my bead that will come off.”
"And it will, even if you are in your dotage?
"Perhaps I am in my dotage. so let me tell you what else is .You also in my Memorial. made very impressive play at the trial of the circumstances that there had been no proved robbery. But you will remem- ber that the prisoner maintain- ed that his wife had a gold pin through the bun at the back of her head, the last bit of jewel- Iery she posssssed. No gold pin was found on the dead wo
I believed that one had been stolen from her.
man.
"I know you laughed very much when I gave orders to my men to look for that pin in the pawn-shops, among a million such in Canton. But shall I tell you something now?
"They were searching the
your
well, is this childish. talk? The prisoner, being an ex- magistrate and tamiliar with methods, said nothing about what had been stolen prom him, except to the investigator that I had at once sent to his cell
"What is this article? Your most honourable Excellency, I am all ears -
A jade ring taken from his finger while he was in an opium. stupor, a ring seen by the mur derer while in the act of smear- ing his hands and sleeves with blood, arter having stabbed his awakened wife to death."
The Prefect of Police narrow- ed his eyes with a sneer.
“Your Excellency, you may în- sult, my intelligence, because you hate me, or ever the Throne's because you are a Viceroy. But spare eighty grown-up men, the rest of your fantasy.. They are not in a position to laugh at you.**
The Viceroy put the tips of his fingers together, tranquil es a Tang figurene. Everyone felt the threat of the still posture.
"A ring I gave him myself eleven years ago when he came out of prison."
*
“A ring you gave him your-. self! Please quickly assure me that
this told you
to the Throne!"
-I did. So did the jeweller. who made that ring, in a sworn statement attached to my Memo-
·rial.”
The old man took a jade ring from his pocket and held it up. "Look well at this "ring, I ask all of you. You see how it is set? The stone is not set solid into the gold. You can look this right through it. And stone isn't just one stone. It is two stones cemented together." The gentle voice snapped out:
Hold his hands!”?
Two of the guards bent back the .the prisoner's arms, and
secretary held up the ring for him against the light of a win- dow. stolen not
Police The Prefect of woman-but. stared through the jade, and his
heavy jaw dropped.
pawn-shops 10ng else,
something that
from the dead from the prisoner." The Vi- eeroy leaned forward. “Well may you blink so hard. This you did not know. And it is this that will fetch your head off on the execution ground. The head you fetched off, that preserved head of the burglar, was identified by the pawn- broker to whom he sold the stolen article. No laugh?”
"Childish talk!”
"Shall I read what you read?” the silvery voice asked. “ From
Chao Hung Li-to Peh Ming I think the Throne knows that the first is my unworthy name, and the second that of the scholar' who has killed you with his wit.. Take him below!"
As the violent man was drag-
burst. ged cut eighty scholars into mocking laughter.
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