The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, September 9, 1900, Page 14

THE SUNDAY CALL. CHAPTER I VALDA’'S FIRST MEETING WITH THE [} RISKOFF was the former Rus ALDA j/ daued d a Manchu il in his be- where she had ns she had id pot know, but d her and then d her to his confidence intil she obtained an entire ascendency in the household. In this way little Valda began life with the advantages of a Chi- nese education. She was also initiated at an early age into the mystery of palace intrigues, for she became the medium of communication between her mother and the Russian legation. Valda was not, of course, her Chinese name. Nor am I sure that it was Rus- sian; but we will let that pass. When she was 10 years of age ber Chi- < RS rs‘fi’: ) ' nese life came to an abrupt conclusion. Valda's mother, being a Manchu, had not ed her child to be crippled, and this time she was beginning to ride abroed in a tomboy fashion which scan- dalized her Chinese stepmothers, but which received the cachet of approval of a Manchu Prince of sporting proclivities One day, having Jeft her groom to drinl play cards at a suburban guard- he was enjoyving an evening y her lone in the direction of rial Hunting Park, when she v three young foreign- ; outing had just taken on stout and cham- king beverage), and to have some fun. (The uestrian eccentricities had been of in the mess, and she was sup- be a precocious nu-chi.) ed strong cross-bred ponies, the young men easily th Valda's little pot-bellied ~gan to crowd her, with very Chinese Jjests picked out of nlda had a high spirit, as well ious humor, and retorted not 1 some cholce repartee as culti- ed in the women’s quarter, but with p as well. Then one of the young andsome and stalwart youth in- iched her off her pony and Kiss- Valda fought wildly and feil to the ind, spraining her ankle. Her captor dismounted and, unaware of her hurt, teased her almost indecently while his companions sat on their ponies roar- ing with laughter. They were all mere boys; one a student interpreter of the British legation and the others junior as- sistants of the revenue mess, six months out from Europe. Suddenly the two stopped laughing; the other, looking up at them and then over his shoulder, whispered: “'Good God, the ‘8. G.I' " The two dismounted and the third stood » v on bean up w on her BTG up, and all looked as sheepish ana terri- fled as schoolboys caught by a master. The cause of their omfiture was the appearfnce on the road, a little distance off, of a mild, i ificant looking per- sonage jogging on 2n old white head nd his mustache mile of a valetu- n who fee! at his constitutional has done him good. *““This means the sack,” sald Blake, the prime culprit, gloc “It's all right “We can say it's lieve he has gee whispered another. ident. I don't be- “The C not see d Blake bit- ly, “when he sces with his boots! don't car 1id the legation man. r °S. say anything to me. erve under a bloom- quisitior »date passenger rode up and only row raising his head, touched his helmet with his fly-whip and sa:d pleasantly: “Good evenirg, gentlemen.” jood evening, =ir.’ they with suspicious alacr A lar man made bold to add, isn't it, sl 1 The mild-faced personage knowledge this remark had better ride on, gen gate closes at Heavily the three young men mounted thelr ponies, and, starting at a deferential Jog trot, soon gave the bit to their im- patient ponies and dizsappeared in a cloud of dust, the only word spoken being a muttered ‘“Damn” from the youth who had pestered Valda. responded nd the consu- retty warm, did not ac- but sald: “You emen. The South CHAPTER IL VALDA LEAVES PEKING. In the meantime the 8. G. had caught Valda’'s pony and replaced her In the saddle. In ordinary life he was known as Mr. Pericord; officlally as the Superin- tendent of Tmperial Revenues. “It is rather unusual for a young Chi- nese lady to ride abroad and alone, is it not?’ he said gently, as if he would ex- cuse the misbehavior of his fellow-for- eigners. 1ls Chinese was perfect—just as perfect, both in accent and form of address, as a native's; so perfect that Valda scarcely noticed the incongruity. All she noticed was the voice, grave, gentle, winning, cinating. I am not Chinese,” she sald, still for all foreigners were as yet barbarians to her. “I am Manchu, My her comes from beyond the wall,” “The honorable father is a military officer?” In China personal questions are polite. Valda told him the name of the man- darin she believed to be her father, and the S. G. lapsed into silence. When four big men in the livery of the Superintendent General of Revenues tipped little Valda out of a big official chalr in front of Sheng Ta-jen's residence there was consternation in the household. What it meant Valda could not under- stand; when first her mother and then her stepfather cross-questioned her over and over again as to every word that had passed between her and the 8. G. she began to think that she had been guilty of some fearful impropriety. But the secret of it all was simply this, in the words of the mandarin to his wife: “If the Tsung Shul-wu Ssu has found out through the child that we have secret communications with the Russlan em- bassy my head will pay the forfeit. He has long suspected that our friends are intriguing to supplant his influence and he is so cunning and patient that if he only discovers your past history he will the next day have proof against me. You DMANCE ST must go down to my home In Wuchang at once, wife.” “To be under the eye of his Hankow commissioner,” sald the lady, bitteriy. “How can you escape his vigilance if once you rouse his suspicion. The network of his agents extends to the four corners of the empire.” In this trepidation Valda was kept a se prisoner for a week, with the result that one afternoon she slipped away with- out telling any one and waylaid the 8. G. on his customary constitutional. “Ching, Lord,” she accosted him, humbl The 8. G. ralsed his eyes. He was riding in a brown study, for he was about to bring off his great coup in the oplum con- vention, and the affair was so delicate and audacious and involved such an immense change in the revenue that in spite of his Napoleonic power of closing the door of his brain during this brief hour of relaxa- tion he could not dismiss the subject from his thoughts. o oung master,”” he responded, he passed, but so absently mistook Valda for a boy. Valda gazed after the bowed figure on the white pony with a feeling which choked her; a disappointment that despair—a stupefaction which a s struck b stung by her innate impulsiveness, she smole her rtly and overtook him. Ta-jen—pardon—but 1 want to, I must nk you. Forgive, please forgive—the all one's impertinence Mr. Pericord brought his old pony te a walk and dismissed the cares of state for the winning suavity which his encmies might feel who by. Then, and pony called “soft soap,” but which was tne quiet, unaffected kindness of a g and gracious nature. hank me, my child—what for? A now I remember your face; it is for me ask pardon for my discourtesy in fo ting it. I trust your ankle no longer pa you? My ankle?’ That was Valda could say. Somett simple than a forgotten all poor litt ing her, but s could inte pret what it was. said nothing and wished she ha before she had d him time kee g timidly she coula think of no other way ing swallowed up by the caris she could excuse herself on that ¢ road. The S. G. was really b not positively annoyed by tl trusfon; but his aimost feminir showed him the child's with a good grace he 1 the complete interruption of his th The only discourtesy he uspgl was best calculated to relieve tie stra embz ment. He took out his and discovered that it was’much later than he thought, and therefore suggeste a canter. ery woman can probably herself just how the girl felt as me ughts, he ire to he fol- lowed him; ,the unrelenting blush of shame, the impotent self-hatred, the sen- sation of agged by her pony's back. tail rath: carried on his When they pi d through the gate she relieved him of her compar without a word, and turning up a side street, rode furiously through narrow alleys followed by @ pandemonium of imprecations from the coolies whose stalls or burdens apset. And that was the 1 impression Valda carried with her of the ¢ of her birt ugh ihe cy of the Rus- sian legation she s wced in the Jesuit Foundling Convent a ent for a v to teach her French, after h she was packed off to ler father In St. Petersbu he ving of his own fnitiati her in the interim. His wife b and left him her fortune with incumbrances, the Count had dc to seek out his Chinese daughter tc his declining years. When he saw how remarkably handsome and Intelligent she ha decided to adopt her and gave her . ‘best Col 1 education al 11 ermined muse CHAPTER VALDA'S RETURN TO CHINA. It happened that within a vear of her return the Count, who was now in the Foreign Office, had cccasion to conduct some delicate negotiations in connection with the Kuldja treaty in which it was of advantage to him to be able t direct with a al Chinese envo, out the intervention of the resider bassador's interpreter. In Chinese came In opport e e diploms e prospeets for him to score quite a lit umph. Without any def her future he nevertheie saw the possi- bilities of the c and was careful, in the scheme of her education, to provide against her entirely forgetting her Chi- nese. Nothing more was necessary, than that she should hold a brief conversation with one of her fellow-countrymen every few months and this was easily arranged. During next seven years Valda was transformed into a modern Russo-French soclety girl. She acquired all the usual accomplishments and what wasMongolian in her was no more in evidence than it is in pure bred Russians. The only point in which she differed from her fellows was in her remarkable aptitude for and experience in Asiatic politics. This galned her something like a Buropean reputation owing to her father's pecullar arrange- ment that she should be periodically in- troduced to the Chinese Ministers of the Gifferent countries in which her education was carried on. By the age of 15 [ think she w known by sight to all the at~ taches of the Chinese embassies in Ber- lin, Paris and London, and regarded both by them and by diplomats as a Russlan spy of quite a new and harmless sort. It s not u for sples to call openly at embassies. Valda knew twice as mucn about Peking intrigues as all the Foreign officlals put together and it ended in them seeking her, not her them. It was a com- mon jest of gray-haired Minissers to sa when China came on to the carpet, “We must send for Miss Valda Beriskoff." This flattered the Count. For once the epithet ““Russian spy” became an epithet of admiration and endearment and gave Valda a unicue eclat when she finally made her debut in society. In consequence of this unbroken con- nection with Chinese politics Valda was never allowed to forget the hero of her childhood. The qGuiet, reserved figure of the S. G. was always before her eyes, although he shunned advertisement as sedulously as politicians court it. His name never appeared in the papers. None outside the cabinets knew of his exist- ence. ‘When a T. Pericord, Esquire, of Peking, was gazetted in the list of British “birth- day honor: when the rumors went abroad that he had been asked for the gecond time to become the British Minis- ter at Peking, with an earldom for a bribe, people scarcely talked of it; none knew who he was, or what he had done, and as the soclety gabbler dreads nothing 8o much as to appear ignorant of other people’s blographies he shunned the topic of Pericord. Great Britain possesses numbers of ob- scure celebritles like these, although none 8 4 +shutting him: BY JUI.IA!I) EMQI G , COPYRIGHT 1900 wielding such power as wielded Ly this Mr. Pericord in another country's service Sir Claude Macdonald. Lord Kitchener, Milner, Rhodes—only when som trifl> such as a war or a m re brings their name into prominence does soclety dis- cover that they have been potentates for years. But to Valda this name possessed ) the sigr ance it possessed up and down the coast of ( the in Forbidden City in the palaces of And as, year after y vear after year went by and still the ung Shul-wu Ssu ned the. chief name to conjure 1 all the Chinese embassi ) think tb » must have B in a it with a p intere If in her. ame must stand for some ancient and immovable in. stitution like that of the Board of Rites or of the I »n Throne itself. It could rot refer only and individualiy to a slight, mild-faced, middle-aged man with a gentle voice ent-minded eyes. who never went anywhere except to sneak out by the side door of his fu for a timid amble In the dusk of the evening, who had been afraid to say a word to his own employes, and wh 1d, had no other way of amusing 1f up In playing a melax In th Vi was perpetuated in sort of dream, crow facts of colorless r When Valda was the P I don't k these names) riage. The Cc was made, was crown of his life's Valda of th ality. it her | to whom the pr delighted sired her to 4 mony wit liabl to die at m e told Valda this » mad as to his age e up nd the which dmit of detalled But to the Count's refused to obey nt to m: riousiy r very but ymptoms of a clandes- e girl. in fac, owed 1 thé hand- not w rry. 1e Count, s: closely a superc| some gal tent mea hensible. marry as the compre- want to of the idea ar of e Count his alliance meant tem to him. Its defea nd that t %0 back to ¢ 1da him quiet) desire Count had an apo- piectic n after. Valc ed to China as the the Russian Minister at Peking a good wardrobe, a sparkling pr Parisian accomplishments and the grand style. Peking, with its attact 4 nationality, i8 not such a bad h ground for a portionless belle, and Vi could have made a better match t her origin warranted if she had des and her guardiah had approved. She did not, however, marry. e voung Russian took her plac course, in the holy of holies of Peking soclety, which, as it numbered in all gbout one hundred members (excepting missionaries and children), divided ftse in more numerous, exclusive and scandai- nzering cliques than even in Shang. i or Simla. Passing globetrotters anc parliamentary j ontertained by Min'sters and invited everywhere 1d be suspi- ted persons. go large hospitality their with an aiacrity which v s to less unsophistic: ho e with stories of th of t homelike good- fellowship which exists among uil the abers of these isolated settlements. lLittle wot of all the heart-burnings which tropble these worthy goodicllows, especially over the priority of getting the ear of a stranger. CHAPTER IV, THE WALLS OF PEKING. 1, as a child, had traveled from Pe- king to Tientsin by boat, a leisurely four days' journey. She ret d by rail in four hours. Somehow her hereditary in- stincts told her that this thing was ab- normal, not of the soil. When she found that the line terminated as soon as the long squat walls with their uncouth tow- ers broke the sky line, the uneasy fore- boding was contirmed. It was a viola- tion of traditions as venerable and Im- movable as those walls that swift artifi- clal traction should cut an unheeding path through the feng-shuis of graves and antiquity which hallowed these bar- ren plains. 1f only (some passionate mis- giving cried within her) the noi an- achronism had been able at once to carry itself right through that barrier, the spell of seclusion might have been dissipated forever. But there ahead still couched the squat, grim monster of the ancient city, intact, sardonical. gazing with its blank mud brow toward the arrested in- novation, sluggishly cherishing the an- clent backwardness and all its vast my terious potentiality of resist and re- gentment. Valda knew the and its city people; born there, the sluggish foulne of its poverty and millions rested a remin- iscent groundwork for her intuitive com- prehension of its character and senti ment; and as in advance she pictured to herself, behind the flat g mound, the mazy panorama of miles and miles of narrow winding alleys, swarming with the antlike industry of stolid crowds, it seem- ed to her that the steel rails and im- bedded trestles over which the steam horse thundered were mere ephemeral ebs, spun only to be swept away. valda-expressed a wish to hire a nati cart to carry her through the Chines: eity to the Chien Men, instead of using the buggy which the Minister had sent to meet her. Valda's origin had, of course, been sedulously concealed, and it appeared perfectly natural to the attache who escorted her that this charming young woman should be curious to see Chinese Peking before immuring herself in the aristocratic avenues of the Tartar city. The jolting cart, with its rude and com- fortless utilitarianism of construction, re- stored Valda to a sense of home-coming which the railway, the mode of travel to which she had been accustomed for the past eight vears, had entirely fafled to im- part. This was China; this was the im- memortal civilization of the East based on the only primitive foundations of expe- dience and economy. Trained in culture and luxury as she had been, she now felt a scornful contempt for the showy ex- travagancés which Western clvilization had grown to depend on as indispensables, And then she smiled on her companion and sald, with a charming shudder: “What hopeless barbarity everywhere!” “We shall change it all when Russia rules Peking,” responded the attache. “Ah!” Valda remembered. Intrigue—a patient relentless purpose—international rivalries forever wrestling in mortal strife beneath the tranquil surface of stereo- typed courtesies—and behind, in the back- ground, gaping with vacant grin, the countless millions of China, storing up beneath their apathy an energy Wwhich might submerge Russia itself in the flood. “Qur influence is paramount, I hear?” suggested V. “But for one man we should dictate the Yamen's poli annex the land, and monopelize the trade of each district in succession as soon as we were ready to assimilate it. . They succumbed un Sir Claude had v to the precedents told me t esistin of Sir Thomas Wade. 1, the British Mjnister does not arm us,” replied the young diplomat, smile of approva 1 for his compan- fon’s intelligence stumbling bl Mr. Pericord, the L R. D. natel h Writ t impregn: E faced dullard would drive our Minister to despair. “The S. G urmured Valda Then she lapsed into silence, A shadow fell the cart. and ered. In ose that it seemed that and crush them, loomed a embankment re couth solidity squa s the city wall red ins ssive and could reach it stretc hand. clean-cut tressed, ponderou towere In frc arched propor burre mit three reed of beehiv mat sheds, ons had were plotting its r 2 knew Mi Chu-Tz embrace of walls than to keep out e R of despis attache system jut 1 9 true that thes walls could offer no re Le to artil- lery? The people who Chinese walls s of merely medi brick hat these and d feet thick, in which ev would bury themselves.” ned. could be defended repiied, indiffere it of twenty at any “But thirty he e a circ or hat it would not be difficuit to > had assaults 100, rewhere—if v simul yus Imperial “And he topography a said in sur- touched the kernel t is that we count on If ould ever have hold Peking: + other powers. my : within the ws 1, would b taken by starvation “What do you mean by a death “Well, there is the population; can't exterminate that. Ten th fifty thousand men (they would have to keep together) wouldn't cover a inch on rt of a city itke this. are walls all around them which can’t be crossed in a nop, skip and a jump. Where WO th d you be if the Chinese got hold of gate d mounted a few guns on the 1 I don't like to think of it,”” Valda murmured with a skiver. “Suppose, with- out war or a siege or anything like that, the crowd were to turn against us; the legations, 1 meant What hope of escaps should we have? “Revolvers for us and arsenic for you,” replied the Russian. They were by this time passing under the long and gloomy tunnel of the gate. “Abandon hope, all ye who enter here, whispered Valda, as if afraid that the guards should ever hear her. “Come, come,” said the attache gallant- ly, taking advantage of the gloom to press Ler hand. hat is not exactly the spirit in which a debutante should look forward to the most brillfant little coterie of fash- ion to be found east of Moscow. ~So that is what you think yourselves?” laughed Valda, rallying. ““Are you so very gay, then?” We should be absolutely frivolous if it were not again for that solemn-faced gen tleman 1 referred to just now. Somehow one can't come within a block of the man without feeling either choked with an at- mosphere of statistics or chilled with an atmosphere of secret reports. The poor fellow iacks what these prigs of English call our ‘Muscovite Veneer.’ He wears a worried look, to quote the ghastly vul- garity of these student boys.” “I am afraid you have not a very good opinion of your fellow Europeans in Pe- king, Captain Vassilich.” “Oh, they will pass, they will pass—un- til they do pass. We must put up with their airs for a year or two longer, I sup- pose, until Peking is called Alexander- burg.” “Or New Tokio. “Never!” said the captain sharply. *I for my part would sooner let loose the whole flood of fanaticism which is brood- ing like a poisonous miasma (he waved his hand toward the crowded alleys) all around us in a million secretive hearts than see Japan paramount at Peking.” ““And be yourself its first victim, most likely,” said Valda scornfully, “With all my heart, if by so dolng I could stave off the yvellow union- which would swallow up Russia in half a cen- tury. But what an astonishing insight into Asiatic politics you seem to possess, Miss Beriskoff!" : “‘Oh, I read the papers, you know,” she answered. CHAPTER V. SOCIETY IN PEKING. Valda was at once embarked on the full tide of the gayeties of Peking society, and invitations poured in on her, every salon being eager to cialm this new at- traction before its rivals. A ball at the French legation, a dinner at the British, a hill picnic by the students’ mess, were organized in her special honor within the first fortnight; but the invitation which alone excited her anticipations was a plain, unpretentious card bearing these printed words: “‘Mr. Pericord requests the pleasure of Miss Beriskoft's and H. E. M. de Samo- Var's presence at a garden party to be held in the grounds of the Superintend- o . in a voice which ca look at her sea intendent G M de mov “Ha, ha, Miss highest from nister’'s ponies ngchau ed. V ind of gaye noon teas at accident t S. G. had © nering at a c no. And he r announced But was cutting off Pe both on the high mandarins invited and on the muffs and jackets of the foreign women. Sleigh rides, gan parties, soirees and b the languid gard excursions of the op for the rest, all tt d (a few hundr persons at the most) depended on the G.'s fortnightly courler service for mails from Shanghal. And now it was that the 8. G., the Velled Prophet of the Revenue Myt the young consulars delighted to d to their chums of the I. R. D., ca of his shell and condes ded to s himself once a month at a public and even to be at home to callers week. Every young man wh a° musical instrum was the chance of a lifetime of attrac personal attention of the dotes were revived of all that had been made by a b thé banjo or a 1 me clarionet. But If the young men practiced hoped, what of the wives of and assistants who had 1r pa ressive summe and secretaries igued to tain a transfer to Peking for the express purpose of offering their charms to the retiring grass-widower? It had come to be accepted as the dv of all mar women in the revenue service to forget their modesty when the chance presented itself to obtain band’s promotion by a little bit of flirtat ; and every one in Peking except the S. G. himself knew that eve ended his receptions with this avowed intention. In fact 1t was whispered that they even cast lots among themselves as to whose turm it should be to monopolize the bashful old bachelor and inveigle him into his con- servatory. CHAPTER VL VALDA'S SECOND MEETING WITH THE 8. G. Valda listened to these boudoir anec- dotes with silent indignation. But what ‘were her feelings when her guardian began to hint that she herself was expected to use her charms on behaif of Russian diplomacy? “You are far and away the cleverest woman in Peking,” said Mr. Samovar, “and you are the only one of the lot who understands the first thing about Asiatie politics. The opportunity presents itself to you to perform a signal service for your country. You are aware that we intend to annex Manchuria to our Amur province of tern Siberia. There are a great many exceedingly delicate questions connected with this stride, each one of which, in some inexplicable fashion, seems to come round to, and depend on, thi sphinx-like Mr. Pericord. Not the leas important of these questions is that con- nected with the collection of duties at the port of Niuchwang, which is at present administered by the department which he controls. Now if Manchuria is to be a part of Russia, Niuchwang, which is the port of Mukden, should be administered, and its tariff regulated, by us. We were already in process of pactfically engross- ing !h{l port by means of cerurn loans or rallway concessions, when the United States Government, which ignores all the