The Island Where Time Stands Still (15 page)

Immediately the porter and Wu-ming had left them, the others set about searching systematically, A-lu-te taking Josephine's room, Kâo her mother's, Tsai-Ping the living-room and Gregory the rest of the flat.

As the only objects likely to hold a clue were letters or papers, Gregory soon covered the territory allotted to him and had nothing to show except a few old bills for provisions found in the kitchen. Returning to the living-room he saw that Tsai-Ping was going through the writing desk there. Kâo had said that he had already done so a few days after the tragedy, and that it contained nothing which could be helpful; but, in spite of that, the Mandarin was carefully scrutinising each paper that he took from it. The majority were in Chinese, but some were in English; so he had made a separate pile of these, and as his knowledge of that language was limited he now asked Gregory to help him read them.

The contents of the desk disclosed that the two ladies had lived in extremely strained circumstances, being apparently entirely dependent upon a small allowance from a relative of Madame Août's who lived in Saigon and at times caused them acute anxiety by getting behindhand with his payments.
Near poverty had obviously restricted their social life, but Tsai-Ping was making a careful note of all the addresses he found among the papers. As Kâo had said, none of these offered any obvious clue; so Gregory, being an experienced searcher, turned his attention to places in which the others were unlikely to look, on the off chance that more private papers of some kind might be hidden somewhere.

Beneath the rugs on the sitting-room floor there were no signs of a hiding place, and the walls were too solid to have been tampered with. There was nothing behind or under any of the drawers in the furniture or above the eye-line on the pelmet ledges of the two windows. Nothing had been pushed down the back of the sofa and there were no papers between the leaves of a shelf of books.

Tsai-Ping meanwhile had come upon a meticulously-kept account book recording household expenses, and was conscientiously going through it; so Gregory left him and, entering Josephine's room, asked A-lu-te if she had any luck. She shook her head.

‘No, I've found nothing except a writing outfit with a few letters in it from a shop that sells fine needlework. Apparently the poor girl had to supplement their meagre income by making cushion-covers and that sort of thing.'

He nodded. ‘Being dumb would have debarred her from most jobs and that is one of the few at which she could have made a little money.'

His glance roved round the room and came to rest on a large framed photograph of a middle-aged Chinaman in European dress that stood on a small table beside the bed. Murmuring, ‘I suppose that would be her father,' he walked over, picked it up and undid the catch at the back of the frame. A dozen sheets of paper covered with Chinese writing tumbled out.

After a moment's swift scrutiny of a few of the sheets, A-lu-te said hesitantly, ‘These are love letters. It … it doesn't seem right to read them.'

‘You must,' Gregory insisted. ‘To observe such scruples
would render our search for the Princess a farce; and, remember, she may be in grave trouble or danger.'

Sitting down on the bed A-lu-te spread out the sheets and put them in order according to their dates. When she had read them all, she looked up with tears in her eyes, and said:

‘They are very beautiful, and come from a young man whose mind must be both delicate and cultured. But oh, how sad they make me for her.'

‘Why?'

‘Apparently he is a poor student and cannot possibly afford to marry until he gets through law school. Even then he would have little to offer her, and her mother was pressing her to marry a lecherous old merchant who is wealthy enough to keep her as a plaything, and of course, would ensure her mother a life of luxury as well. For that reason she dare not tell her mother about the young man. As it was, they could meet only occasionally, and if her mother had known that they were having an affair he would never have been allowed to come to the flat again.'

‘That certainly was tough; especially as most men would think twice before asking a dumb girl to be their wife, however beautiful she was. Having a young man with serious intentions must have meant more to her than it would have to most girls. What is his name?'

‘He does not give it, but ends his letters with such phrases as “He who lives only to prostrate himself again in the gentle light of his sweet silent Moon”.'

‘We must find him somehow. Does he give his address?'

‘Yes; they are written from the law school at which he is studying.'

‘How long ago were they written?'

‘It is nearly eighteen months since he wrote the first two. Both of them are quite formal and he mentions in one of the later ones that he ceased writing only because he received no reply. Then this spring it appears that they met again and were alone together for a short time, during which they made a mutual declaration. From that point his letters give free rein to his feelings. But he dared not send them through
the post for fear that her mother might see them. They evidently exchanged letters surreptitiously each time he called; but he had to restrain himself from coming here too frequently, otherwise her mother's suspicions might have been aroused. That's why there are only seven or eight letters altogether. The last one was written about a fortnight before she disappeared. None of them gives any hint of what may have become of her; but in the circumstances it seems very probable that either the shock of her mother's death, or the fact that she had become free to follow her own inclinations, sent her flying straight to the arms of her young man. They may even have decided to stake their love against the uncertainties of the future and got married there and then.'

‘Her first impulse would obviously have been to go to him,' Gregory agreed thoughtfully, ‘but I rather doubt if she did—or anyhow that she remained with him for more than an hour or two, whatever plans they may have made for the future. Remember they were both extremely hard up. If they had decided to get married, as you suggest, or even live together, they would have needed every cent they could raise. They could have set up house together here, or, if there were no objections to that, have sold the contents of the flat for two or three thousand dollars: Surely she would have come back, if only to collect her clothes and personal belongings?'

‘She may have relatives in San Francisco that we don't know about. Perhaps she was afraid that on hearing of her mother's death they would insist on her going to live with them, and then assert their authority to marry her off to the rich old merchant. In Chinese families the men still have rights over their unmarried female relatives that far exceed anything of the kind among Americans or Europeans. Dread of some new restriction on her freedom may have decided them to disappear together while they had the chance.'

‘That is a possibility. But suppose you are right; I see no reason why, after they had been married, she should not
have returned to claim her property. She would have had nothing to fear from her relatives then.'

‘Oh, but she would!' A-lu-te protested. ‘Any sensitive girl would dread the recriminations she would have to face; particularly a Princess, after having made such a misalliance as to marry a penniless student. He would get into serious trouble too. Chinese marriage customs cannot be flouted with impunity. It is a grave offence to marry a girl without first having obtained the consent of her nearest male relative. It is even possible that his family might disown him, and it is certain that he would be ostracised in future by all respectable members of the Chinese community. Rather than submit to so much unpleasantness, most young couples would decide to sacrifice a small inheritance and leave at once for another city, in which they were known to no one.'

‘You have overlooked the fact that he was a law student. Such a step would mean his having to abandon his hopes of getting a degree. Most students, too, are dependent upon their parents. It's hardly likely that he would be quite such a fool as to both wreck his future and carry a dumb wife off into the blue without knowing how he was going to feed her.'

‘It is you who forget the fact that these two young people are in love. Admittedly the poor Princess's being dumb would prove an additional handicap, but any number of men have thrown away their careers for love's sake. And love is the greatest of all incentives to earn a living. To begin with, having each other, they would be content with very little; and he could easily get a job as a waiter, a clerk or a garage hand.'

Gregory shook his head. ‘I'm still not convinced that your explanation is a plausible one. It doesn't account for her failure to claim her own things and her mother's. Even if she had good reasons for not returning personally she could have had them collected by a firm of furniture removers, or have sent instructions for them to be sold on her behalf. Besides, your theory that she was afraid that relatives might coerce her is the wildest speculation. Her father had cut
himself off from his family and there is nothing whatever to suggest that any of Madam Août's family live in San Francisco. On the contrary, as far as we know her only relatives live in Saigon.'

‘If you can produce any more plausible explanation I should like to hear it,' retorted A-lu-te a little sharply.

The old scar that drew up the outer end of Gregory's left eyebrow went white as his forehead contracted in a frown. ‘The contents of those letters have given me one line of thought. It is far from being a pleasant one, but it is slightly more plausible than yours because it does account for all her belongings still being here. We know that she and her mother had very few friends, and that in losing her mother she lost her only legitimate protector. It could therefore be assumed by anyone who knew them that if she disappeared no one would start a hue and cry after her; or at all events, not for several days, by which time any evidence concerning her last known movements would have become obscured, making it next to impossible to trace her.'

‘Are you suggesting that she has been White Slaved?'

‘More or less: I had in mind the old boy who was itching to pull her into bed with him. Naturally, as long as Mamma was around, marriage was the price, but once she was out of the way he may have taken a different view of things. Perhaps it sounds a bit melodramatic, but if he was rich enough what was to prevent him paying one of the Tongs to kidnap her?'

‘I don't think he would have dared to. Although she was reduced to living very frugally she was a member of the Imperial Family, and he must have known that.'

‘He may not have, in view of the way the late Mr. Joseph Août chose to hide his light under a bushel.'

‘You may be certain that her mother would have told him.'

‘Anyhow, the sort of thugs he would have employed would not have known who she was, and being dumb she could not have told them. That, too, would make it impossible to enlist help to escape, providing all writing materials were kept
from her. Once she had been handed over to him in some snug hideout he might keep her there for years without anyone learning of her identity.'

‘I feel sure that his inherent respect for her ancestry would have restrained him from behaving towards her as if she was a common tea-house girl.'

Again Gregory's lips twitched in a cynical smile. ‘You were saying only a few minutes ago that some men will commit any folly for love. It is equally true that others, particularly old worn-out ones, will sometimes throw overboard the precepts of a lifetime, if by so doing they can possess a woman who has re-aroused their lust. As she had so far refused to marry him that might quite well have driven him to seize this opportunity of taking her by force. I only hope that I am completely wrong. Anyhow, we had better show the letters to the others, and see if they get any bright ideas from them.'

In the living-room they found Tsai-Ping still poring over the account book, while Kâo sat with folded hands in the most comfortable arm-chair, a bored expression on his chubby face. When A-lu-te produced Gregory's find, both men were galvanised into eager interest, and Kâo so far forgot his decorum as to snatch the letters before the Mandarin could take them from A-lu-te's extended hand. When both of them had read the letters, Tsai-Ping removed his steel-rimmed spectacles, blinked his weak eyes, and said in his awkward English:

‘One thing letters have make clear. Our big fear is that perhaps very much about her mother's death grieving, the Princess make do herself away. These writings show very much that her mother's wish she oppose. Where no filial respect there no very much grief for death of parent. Princess no commit suicide. She is alive. Time come, we find her.'

The others agreed with the Mandarin's reasoning; then A-lu-te and Gregory gave their respective theories to account for the Princess's disappearance. Neither of the Chinamen could produce any third hypothesis, and both of them inclined to A-lu-te's as the most likely; but they had not been arguing the pros and cons for long when Wu-ming returned with the daily woman.

Her name was Lubsitch. She was of Lithuanian extraction, middle-aged, wooden-faced and of low intelligence. The Chinese treated her with patient courtesy and promised a generous reward if she could give them any fresh information worth working on, but she persisted that she had already told Mr. Kâo Hsüan all she knew about the Août household.

Wu-ming Loo did most of the questioning and, having told her of the love letters, asked her about visitors to the apartment; but she had come there only for two hours in the mornings, and declared that she had never answered the door to anyone except tradesmen and touts who were trying to sell things on the ‘never-never' system. Neither of the ladies had ever told her anything about their private affairs and she had no idea at all who Josephine's two suitors might be; so, after pressing a five dollar bill into her moist palm, Wu-ming sent her about her business.