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Updated: May 25, 2025
"Ah, no!" cried the cruel triumphant Oriental. "Tai-K'an warned your father that he would have his revenge. His daughter was to him as much as you are to your own father the mandarin," and he laughed that short, grating laugh of the Chinaman, which caused Otley to clench his fists. For a few seconds he hesitated as to how he should act.
Rayne, taking the magnificent jewels and running them through his hands, said: "The Chink is a friend of ours, and we've had our eye upon these stones for a very long time, but rather than the young fellow and the girl shall be ruined I am sending them back to Mrs. Bainbridge's anonymously by to-night's post. Sir Polworth Urquhart will think they have come from Tai-K'an. See, Hargreave?
The window was closely shuttered, as were all in that mysterious silent thoroughfare one into which the police would hardly venture to penetrate alone. The young man listened, his ears strained to catch any sound. Suddenly he heard Peggy shriek. He listened breathlessly. Yes, it was her voice raised distinctly. "You!" he heard her cry. "You! You are Tai-K'an! My father has told me of you!"
The girl's father then drew himself up and, with the fire of hatred in his slant black eyes, exclaimed in very good English: "You have sent my daughter to her death though she is innocent! You have a daughter, Sir Polworth Urquhart. The vengeance of Tai-K'an will fall upon her. Remember my words! May the Great Mêng place his curse upon you and yours for ever!"
Your father never thought that Tai-K'an followed you on your country journey, eh?" Otley heard the words faintly through the shutters and stood rooted to the spot. Peggy was the thief? She had wanted to sell them and had been entrapped. In an instant he realized her position. He heard her voice raised first in faint protest, and then she implored the Chinaman to release her.
The girl was the daughter of a small merchant named Tai-K'an, who sold all his possessions in order to pay for the girl's defense. The case was a flimsy one from the start, but in the native court where it was heard there was much bribery by the friends of the dead lover.
Notwithstanding the fact that Tai-K'an devoted the whole of his possessions to his daughter's defense, and that strong proof of guilt fell upon a young Chinaman who was jealous of the dead man, the poor girl was convicted of murder. Sir Polworth remembered all the circumstances well.
At the time he did not believe in the girl's guilt, but the court had decided it so, therefore why should he worry his official mind over the affairs of mere natives? The day came he recollected it well when the sentence of death was put before him for confirmation. Tai-K'an himself, a youngish man, came to his house to beg the clemency of the great British mandarin.
On tearing it open he found within a slip of rice-paper on which some Chinese characters had been traced. He looked at them for a few seconds and then translated them aloud to himself: "Tai-K'an has not forgotten the great English mandarin!" "Curse Tai-K'an!" growled Sir Polworth under his breath. "After ten years I thought he had forgotten. But those Orientals are slim folk.
Yet like all Chinese, Tai-K'an evidently nursed his grievance, and time had not dulled the bitterness of his hatred. But the offensive Chinaman was in Hong Kong therefore what mattered, Sir Polworth thought. So he seated himself and wrote his letters. At that moment Lola, who was shopping in London, entered and her father cut off quickly. The girl glanced at me and smiled.
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