Chapter XVIII

A sharp whistle sounded outside her window, a sound as unmistakably European as Caruso's voice. Megan knew it must be Mr. Shultz. She waited until it came again, with greater urgency, then got up reluctantly. She looked down on Mr. Shultz from the window and saw him standing below in plus fours with pale checked golf hose and elaborate brogues. As he looked up at her the expression of his eyes softened perceptibly, and she realized that she was still decorated with Mah-li's make-up and that Mr. Shultz, unconscious of the cause, found her more attractive than he had the night before, that he was impressed by the change. Although she believed his admiration to be a matter of complete indifference to her, she felt a certain amiability toward him, a tolerance that she could not account for.

"Good morning, Miss Davis."

"Good morning, Mr. Shultz. Where are you off to?"

"I'm going away to attend to some urgent business of the General's, and I don't like to leave you here alone all day. Not that you can't take care of yourself in most circumstances, but things aren't going so well over in town. If Mah-li, for instance, should want to take you on any more shopping tours, like she did yesterday, you'd better not go."

"They aren't fighting in the town, are they?"

"No, not fighting, but maybe getting ready to. It is a funny thing, Miss Davis, but I seem to have a kind of sixth sense where money is concerned. And I can just tell by hundreds of small indications, that no one else might hardly notice, that there has been an awful lot of money let loose in the last day or so in that town. It didn't come from the General, so that means the Communists have got it and if they've got it the probabilities are it is Russian money. No one hands out money just for the improvement of the race, Miss Davis. It is for value received, and that looks bad."

"I suppose you mean the Communists are being paid to throw the General out."

"It looks as if they were going to try."

"Can't you pay them more not to?"

"Good Lord, Miss Davis, you sound Chinese!" Mr. Shultz laughed.

"Oh, I didn't mean it seriously," said Megan, smiling. "It just slipped out. Still it does seem reasonable, doesn't it?"

"Reasonable, except that there is no end to it. No, that is what our army and our arsenal are supposed to be for, so we don't have to spend so much on bribes. We find the army is cheaper in the end. The only trouble is they can bribe the army too, if they want to blow that much."

"But haven't the army any loyalty?"

"Oh, you mustn't think of them like our army, Miss Davis. They haven't any convictions, they are mercenaries. They don't care who has them, so long as they get their rice and a little loot."

"The thing to do then would be to give them the convictions, wouldn't it? Make them feel the General is the man to bring them prosperity and order and justice, and that he can only do that through their loyalty."

"Propaganda? Yes, we do that too. But it is terribly hard, Miss Davis, to fix anything new in the minds of people who haven't had a new idea for five thousand years."

"I suppose it is."

The spring air had an enervating softness. Megan leaned her head against a side of the window and looked up at rifts of blue that opened occasionally in the misty sky. Mr. Shultz leaned against the wall looking up at Megan.

"Isn't Captain Li one of the Communist party?" she asked.

"We think he is. We think he has been betraying the General all along."

"Then why keep him?"

"Sort of hostage, I guess. His family are very powerful, they are supposed to be friends of the General, but you never can tell. And then he can't do much harm here."

Megan was about to say, "And Mah-li?" but she did not. Though she found Mr. Shultz quite bearable when he was not being an obvious and direct influence on the General, she did not wish to discuss Mah-li with him. She felt bound by a mysterious loyalty to Mah-li and the General. Mr. Shultz, the General had said, was bound by reason and interest. It did not seem fitting that she should discuss either of them with him.

"Well, don't worry about me," she said. "I'll take good care to keep out of harm all day!"

"Right-o," said Mr. Shultz, "and don't you worry any. I've got it all fixed to get you back to Shanghai if anything happens suddenly. And if it don't, I've still got it fixed to get you back in a few days. I don't like your being here with these people. The General is a good scout, but after all, he is Chinese, and his reputation with women is none too good. As for Mah-li, she isn't the sort a lady like you should associate with."

Megan laughed. "So you have ideas of decorum too!"

"Sure I have," said Mr. Shultz rather indignantly. He straightened up and put on his cap. "Well, I have to hustle on now," he said, "but I'll be back by dark. So long, Miss Davis."

"So long, Mr. Shultz."