CHAPTER VII.
IN A TORTURE CHAMBER.
Alice felt that her situation was bad enough as she passed through the"door of death" without Dr. Garshaski adding to it by clap-trap.
This she was sure he had done, for while the Chinese characters on theother doors were painted directly on the woodwork, in this case it was apiece of red paper, upon which the character had been written with aChinese pen.
That it had been put there for her special benefit Alice did not doubt.
It was just like Dr. Garshaski, who was forever doing something dramaticin the old days.
He hurried Alice along the empty corridor and down a short flight ofstairs.
Coming to a door, he let go his hold and knocked.
It was instantly opened by a very Chinese-looking Chinaman wearing arich native dress.
The room was rather small, but well fitted up as a bed chamber, partlyin Chinese and partly in American style. In the middle of the floorstood the box which was supposed to contain the Chinese princess.
"So you have come at last!" exclaimed the Chinaman in his own language."I thought you never would."
"Patience, Wang Foo," replied the doctor. "We can't get there all in amoment."
"But the princess may die. She may be dead now. I believe it. She oughtto have been released long ago."
"Patience, I tell you. I know my business. She is in no danger of deathwhatever."
"And the woman you were to bring to look after her. She must have anattendant. She is not to be ill treated. She is of my own blood."
"The woman is here."
"What, a white woman?"
"Yes."
"Of what use can she be?"
"I know her of old. She is an excellent nurse. None better."
"But she cannot talk to the princess."
"There you are quite mistaken. Better be careful what you say to her.She speaks Chinese as well as you do."
Wang Foo stared at Alice and asked her name.
He managed to grasp the Alice part, but the rest was quite beyond him.
"Hurry! Hurry," he cried.
"Alice," said the doctor, "I am going to resurrect the princess now. Sitdown in that easy-chair and make yourself at home."
Alice silently obeyed. Thus far there seemed nothing so terrible comingout of the passage through the door of death.
The doctor asked for a screw-driver, and Wang Foo produced one, withwhich he made short work of opening the box.
There, apparently, in a deep sleep, lay a little doll of a Chinese womanupon blankets carefully fitted into the box.
She was in plain native dress, and her feet were not bigger than thoseof a good-sized doll.
This alone proved that she belonged to a good family.
The ordinary Chinese women do not compress their feet.
The doctor bent over the box and listened at her heart.
"She's all right," he said. "I'll have her out of this in no time."
He produced a leather medicine case, and, taking a tumbler from thewashstand, proceeded to mix small portions of the contents of twodifferent vials.
The result was a reddish liquid, of which he administered a few drops tothe princess.
"Now, Alice," he said, "we can talk freely before this man, who is justfrom China and can't speak a word of English. Our love affairs can hangover a few days. Just now I am going to explain about this woman. She isthe daughter of a rich Pekin Mandarin, who has sold her to an equallyrich merchant here in Chinatown. They are really in love with eachother, and the woman came to California of her own accord, although notin just the way she set out to do. She is also the granddaughter of arich old Chink on her mother's side, who died in San Francisco at thetime of the great fire. He left a pile of ready cash behind him, but noone knows where he hid it. That he did hide it somewhere on the night ofthe fire is certain. Just before his death, as I have the best of reasonfor believing, old Gong Schow wrote out this secret of the buried moneyand sent it to a man in China with instructions for him to deliver theletter containing the secret to his granddaughter on her twentiethbirthday. It was done. This funny little midget alone knows where GongSchow's wealth is buried. She has kept her secret well. She promised herlover to reveal it to him on their marriage day. Wang Foo knows allthis. He is my partner in certain business transactions. He is hercousin. He started to escort her to Shanghai from her home in Pekin.There she was to sail on the Manchuria for San Francisco. But Wang Foodeceived her and took her aboard an English tramp steamer, the DoverCastle. He has delivered her to me. She must be made to give up hersecret, fair Alice. That was another reason why I kidnaped you. I wantyou to do the detective act. Get the secret out of the princess as bestyou can, only get it. Make her understand that if she don't give it upshe will surely die. You have followed me in all this, I hope?"
"I certainly have," replied Alice, adding: "At your old tricks, doctor.Forever plotting and scheming. Am I to be kept alone with this Chineseprincess then?"
"That's what you are, and it's up to you to work my schemes out tosuccess, for it is I and not Wang Foo who must have this hiddentreasure----But she is waking; my drug has done it's work."
It was so. Inside of a few minutes the Chinese princess had fullyrevived.
She was little, but she made it hot for those around her.
Such a temper Alice never saw displayed in any Chinawoman.
She began by screaming, demanding to know where she was and why she wasthere.
She turned on Wang Foo with all the fury of a tigress, accused him ofdrugging her, of kidnaping her, and then began yelling to be taken to AhLung.
As for Dr. Garshaski, she did not appear to know him. She seemed to feelan instinctive hatred for him, however. She clawed at his face and triedto hit him when he started to help her out of the box.
She got out herself, however, and promptly tumbled over on her littlefeet. Like many another Chinawoman of her class, she could scarcelywalk.
Wang Foo did not attempt to reply.
At last he and Dr. Garshaski left the room, taking the box away withthem.
After a while they returned with two trunks containing the belongingsof the princess, whom they found crying in Alice's arms.
"That's right, Alice, that's right," said the doctor, delightedly. "Isee you know your business as well as ever. Keep it up, my dear, and seehere, I have determined to make you a promise. If you succeed in wormingthe secret out of that horrid little fright, you shan't marry me unlessyou really want to--so there!"
"That's certainly kind of you," said Alice with a half sneer. "Allright, doctor, I'll see what I can do."
She did nothing of the sort, of course.
During the days of her unexplained absence, Alice remained shut in thatroom with Skeep Hup, the Chinese princess, an old Chinawoman servingthem with their meals and otherwise attending to their wants.
Two Chinamen with drawn revolvers stood outside the door every time itwas opened. There was no possibility of escape.
During this time Alice got very close to the princess.
Little Skeep Hup seemed to take a great liking to her from the first,which increased as the days dragged by.
She told Alice about everything she knew except the secret of thehiding-place of her grandfather's buried treasure, which she claimed sheknew. She confirmed Dr. Garshaski's story in every particular, andupbraided herself bitterly for having been foolish enough to listen tothe lies of Wang Foo.
But where was Wang Foo?
They saw no more of him.
Dr. Garshaski came every day towards night asking as to Alice's success.
She put him off as best she could.
"The princess will not reveal her secret," she said at last, "and whocan blame her? The best thing you can do, doctor, is to go and blackmailAh Lung out of a few thousand and set her free."
This was on the night the Bradys had the call from Ah Lung.
The doctor's face grew dark as Alice said it.
"Do
you say so?" he exclaimed. "Well, we shall see!"
He turned on the princess and said:
"Now look here, little woman, to-night you have to tell your secret ortake the consequences. Understand?"
Then Skeep Hup flew into one of her rages, and the doctor was getting itgood and plenty when he abruptly left the room, saying in English toAlice as he went out:
"This is played out. She shall be made to tell, and you, who I believehave put her up to this, shall see the job done. You will find out thatit is no joke to have passed through the door of death."
And this Alice translated for the benefit of Skeep Hup, asking her whatshe supposed it meant.
"It means torture, that's what it means," replied the princess,promptly. "No matter. They will never get the secret out of me. I willnever reveal it to any one but Ah Lung."
And here is what followed:
No supper came that night.
Alice and the princess waited until they were tired, and were justpreparing to go to bed when the door was suddenly thrown open and twomen wearing hideous paste-board masks after the Chinese style enteredthe room.
Dr. Garshaski and another followed them, an old Chinaman with a long,drooping mustache. A person Alice had never seen.
"Young women," said the doctor, "you are to follow us to the tortureroom, unless you, Princess Skeep Hup, instantly reveal what I wish toknow, or, rather, give me your promise to do so, for it must be revealedto me alone."
The princess set her lips together, and, throwing intense scorn into herspeech, defied him.
They were then led along the passage, through a door at its end, upsteps and through another passage, winding up in a room all draped inblack, which was dimly lighted by a solitary candle placed within ahuman skull resting on an old-fashioned coffin, which looked as if itmay have been made to fit the princess, judging from its size.
Beyond this was a low table provided with an arrangement of ropesattached at one end to a post at the other to a large wooden jackscrew.
It was a wicked-looking engine.
Alice shuddered.
"We have fallen into the hands of a bunch of yellow fiends," shethought. "I wonder if there is anything too wicked for Dr. Garshaski todo?"
The two masks now seized the princess and laid her down upon the tableon her back.
They then proceeded to tie her hands to the ropes attached to the post,while her feet were made fast to those attached to the screw.
The brave little woman never let out a whimper--never said one word.
"You see, Alice," said the doctor, taking his place beside her. "Don'tyou think of interfering, or you shall get your dose."
"You yellow fiend!" breathed Alice, feeling that such cruelty was beyondendurance. "Wouldn't I like to have the turning of that screw with youon the table! How dare you resort to such barbarous methods as this?"
"Have a care!" hissed the doctor. "That's the rack--the old-fashionedrack, such as your white holy men used to resort to when they wanted tomake a man holy in some other way than his own. It is still in use inChina for extorting confessions from thieves. Nice contrivance, isn'tit? But its use has been by no means confined to the Chinese."
"What you allude to happened two hundred years ago, and you know it,"retorted Alice. "It takes yellow fiends like you and your friends hereto torture a woman in these days!"
"Bah! They would rack people to death for religion's sake to-day if theydared," answered the doctor.
"But you have your warning, so heed it," he added, and advancing to theprincess, he again asked her if she was ready to reveal the secret.
"Never!" she cried. "You can torture me all you will, but you will neverlearn from me that which will place in your hands what I choose shallbelong to my husband, Ah Lung."
"Ah Lung is not your husband nor will he ever be unless you yield to myrequest," declared the doctor.
She gave him one look and turned her head away.
"Give the screw a twist!" cried the doctor, and the old Chinaman obeyed,the two masks standing on each side reciting something in old Chinesewhich Alice could make nothing of.
Skeep Hup bore the pain thus inflicted unflinchingly.
She shut her eyes, set her lips, and never uttered a sound.
"Will you tell?" demanded the doctor.
No answer.
"Give it another turn!" he thundered.
The screw was turned again.
The masks chanted louder than ever.
The Chinese princess groaned in her misery. Alice was forced to turn herhead away.
They let her lie so for a few minutes before the doctor again put thequestion.
This time she answered, declaring that never would she tell.
"You fool!" cried the doctor. "Do you realize that I mean to continue toorder that screw turned until your limbs are wrenched off?"
"I believe you," replied the princess, "but I shall never tell."
He let her lie there in agony for a few minutes, and then put therequest again.
This time there was no answer.
The victim of this yellow fiend was almost past speech.
"Go it again!" thundered the doctor.
"You fiend!" cried Alice. "Release that woman or I'll do somethingdesperate. In the name of humanity! In the name of your mother! Dr.Garshaski, forbear!"
"Interfere at your peril!" thundered the doctor, and as he spoke thescrew was turned once again.
If Alice had been in possession of her revolver she surely would haveshot the fiend, but that had long ago been taken from her.
Helplessly she turned her head away, stopping her ears that she mightnot hear the cries which the wretched Chinese woman could no longer keepback.
But the cries suddenly _ceased_.
"She has fainted," said the torturer.
"You have killed her, poor soul!" moaned Alice. "Oh, you yellow fiends!"