boy,’ whispered the Professor, leading him out of earshot. ‘Yes, I have got the information I wanted. But I am afraid I was obliged to resort to a most distasteful form of deception to get it. However, perhaps its importance will justify the deceit.’
‘What did you tell him, sir?’ asked Derrick.
‘I told him that I was a secret agent working on his side – that I had been sent to Hsien Lu to deceive and entrap him. At length, when it appeared that you too understood Russian he believed me, and he told me that he was the man who was entrusted with the care of the new consignment of machine-guns and bombs that had been sent to Shun Chi for his final attack on Hsien Lu. He was supposed to join the four other Russians in the rebels’ camp in order to supervise the operation of these weapons.’
‘Then without him they won’t be able to use them?’
‘No. I am afraid that is not the case. The other men know enough about these guns and bombs to manage without him. It is a very bad business, Derrick: the day after tomorrow Shun Chi will attack Hsien Lu. He has lorries and tanks, and with these he can bring up his forces more rapidly than the Tu-chun can retreat. And once he attacks, with these new mortar-bombs and the tanks, I think that it will be all up with Hsien Lu, and as for the fate of your uncle and Mr Ross …’ he stopped, and shook his head.
For a long while neither of them spoke. Then Derrick said, ‘I have an idea, sir. It may seem a feeble one, but it is an idea.’
‘Tell me. I have been racking my brains, but I can think of nothing that is not obviously foolish.’
‘Well, couldn’t you go and say that you are this Russian? You could take his papers, and you could manage the language all right.’
‘Yes, and then?’
‘Why, then you could throw a spanner in the works somehow.’
‘But how? That is the point. The first part would not be too difficult. Petrovitch – that is the prisoner – has never seen the other Russians who are with Shun Chi, and we are much the same size and build, though he is younger than I am. Yes, I think they might take me at my face value. But what could I do then?’ The Professor wiped his spectacles: he was deeply distressed.
‘Perhaps you could get Shun Chi to let you talk to Uncle Terry and Mr Ross. You could pretend to question them, and they might give you some better idea; they are very good that way.’
‘Yes, I am sure they are. Yes. That is undoubtedly the best course of action: at all events it is better than waiting here impotently doing nothing. I am obliged to you for the suggestion.’ He sat down with his head between his hands. ‘There are difficulties,’ he said, after some thought, ‘many of them. I hardly know one end of a machine-gun from another. And the same applies to a bomb. They have so far come so very little into my life, you see. In the last war they kept me at home all the time for liaison work in unusual languages, you see, and I never saw a shot fired. Dear me, this is a singular position for an elderly archaeologist. But, as you say, we must do something. And apart from anything else, I should like to hamper this fellow Shun Chi if it is at all possible. Hsien Lu is a very good fellow in his own rough way, and he has a due respect for learning; whereas this Shun Chi …’ He went on to inveigh against the rebel leader’s total lack of culture, while Derrick thought furiously.
‘We must get cracking,’ said Derrick. ‘There is no time to be lost.’
‘Very well, my boy. I will speak to Hsien Lu. Really, you seem to have a most practical mind in these difficult circumstances. I suppose it is your sea-training.’
The war-lord welcomed their proposal. He agreed to spare the prisoner’s life, according to the Professor’s promise, but he stripped the unfortunate man to the skin, and gave the Professor his clothes.
‘You will have to wear these,’ he said, ‘and here are his papers. I hope you will be able to ensnare the despicable Shun Chi, but if your esteemed intelligence succeeds in this project, I beg that the first consideration should be the safety of Mr Ross. I owe him a debt of gratitude, and if necessary I will attack with my whole army to set him free, although I have little hope of prevailing against Shun Chi’s ignoble strategy.’
He gave them all they asked, horses, weapons and a guide, and he added a little packet of quick poison, so that they should die easily if Shun Chi caught them.
Derrick was determined to go too, whatever the Professor might say. He privately asked the Tu-chun whether there were any Mongols in his camp, and when the Tu-chun said that there were four, Derrick begged to be allowed to change clothes with the smallest of them. He was accustomed to Mongol clothes – he had often worn Chingiz’s – and when Li Han, working feverishly, had altered them a little they looked natural enough. He greased his face as a Mongol does against the wind, using old and dirty grease, and he pulled the sheepskin hood low over his face. When the Professor saw him, he did not recognise him until he spoke, and his objections died away.
‘I should not permit it,’ he said hesitantly. ‘You ought to ride back to Chien Wu with Li Han. But I must admit that I would be very glad to have you at hand: I am not very much use in these emergencies. The danger of your being discovered is certainly very much less.’ He stared hard at the Mongol figure in front of him. ‘But if there is the slightest unfortunate incident, you must give me your word to ride straight back to Chien Wu, where Olaf will be able to get you out of the country. At the slightest mishap, and at the slightest untoward word, you understand? Fortunately Hsien Lu has given us the best horses in the country.’
Derrick promised, but with the mental reservation of deciding for himself just how dangerous the situation could become.
They left Li Han in the camp, with orders to return to the walled city, and the Professor entrusted him with his notes on the stelae, which, he said, were already worth the whole trouble of the expedition. Hsien Lu rode with them to the foot of the hills on the way to Liao-Meng and the rebels’ camp. When he parted from them he wished them good fortune and stood watching them for a long while as they followed the winding road up into the hills. Once Derrick looked back, and far down the road beyond the Tu-chun he saw a toiling figure mounted on an ass.
By nightfall they were at the top of the hills, and in the morning they looked down into the province of Liao-Meng. It was just before the rising of the sun that Derrick stood there looking down into the unknown land: he was wondering where in all that stretch of country his uncle lay when he was startled by the braying of an ass. He whipped round, and saw a donkey tethered with the horses. There was a little fire sending up a straight pillar of blue smoke in the still air, and beside it squatted a familiar figure. It was Li Han, brewing the Professor’s early morning tea.
‘Please excuse pertinacious disobedience,’ said Li Han, bringing forward the steaming bowls, ‘but I conceived cunning and lovely stratagem for discomfiture of rebels.’
‘Hotcha,’ said the Professor, and then in Chinese. ‘Speak freely, worthy sea-cook.’
‘Have prepared several hundred lumps of sugar,’ said Li Han, bowing, ‘each one inscribed with Chinese characters for Good Fortune, Long Life, Fertility and Victory. These, if inserted into petrol of mechanical transport belonging to ignominious rebel Shun Chi, will cause practically instantaneous and insuperable carbonisation of working parts.’
‘Is that really so, Li Han? Where did you find that out?’
‘Magnanimous engineer of trampling steamer imparted said information at Hong Kong when he required my unworthy aid in sabotaging car belonging
