Bones of the Chinamen

Part 3 of 4

    Armindo sat in a chair behind the table. The Captain sat on an empty salt beef barrel. Only the crimps and the emigration agent remained standing. I was deeply immersed in my guilt and of having come face to face with my cowardice, and I hadn’t realized Armindo was addressing me.

    “Li Tong...Li Tong!”

    I could hear a kind of suspicion in Armindo’s tone of voice. “Your thoughts have gone a-wool gathering, have they?”

    The agent glanced from Armindo to me. He looked me over for just a few seconds then spoke abruptly as if speaking to an untrustworthy inferior. “Ask this man if he knows where he is going and if he is going willingly.”

    “The foreign-devil wants to know if you are going willingly. Remember what you have been told about how to answer.”

    After a pause, the coolie nodded his head. “Yes.”

    “Where is he going?”

    “Where are you going?”

    “To the Gold Country.”

    At that I hesitated. I saw Armindo’s ash grey eyes boring into me. “He says he is going to the Chincha Islands.”

    The agent moved to stand before the next coolie. It was Tiang-si’s brother. “Now ask this man the same.”

    “The outside-barbarian wants to know if you are going on the black-sided devil ship on your own.”

    When the boy hesitated I glanced toward Armindo. Armindo lifted his head slightly toward the cockloft. I turned again to the boy. “Think of your sister.”

    The boy looked toward the floor, defeated, but nodded his head.

    Suddenly, Tiang-si’s scream – an unearthly, high-pitched, shriek – cut through the upstairs darkness and for several seconds overwhelmed the sounds of the storm. “Aiiieeee!”

    She appeared at the top of the stairs, her tunic and hair disheveled to the point where she looked like a kind of shaman. She was barefoot. She also seemed to have gone slightly mad.

    “Lies! Lies!” She slowly raised one hand and pointed to the front door. “Listen to those who witness! Dead but not silent!”

    In the complete stillness, no one moved. To me at least, the sounds of howling wind gusts and of bones being blown against the barracoon were more audible than ever before. After several seconds, in which even Armindo remained perfectly still, she began descending the stairs.

    “These men were kidnapped or tricked into coming here. Most of them still think they are going to the Gold Country! They do not want to go to the Chincha Islands. No Chinese has ever returned from there. I will translate for you!”

    Armindo stood and reached for his pistol. He held it but did not lift the barrel up. “You've got enough tongue for two sets of teeth! Get back upstairs and stay there!”

    “Who are you?”

    “I came for my brother. He was kidnapped by these men. They have whipped him almost to death.”

    “She's lying. No one here is-

    Tiang-si moved quickly to her brother, turned him around and ripped off his shirt. The agent was horrified.

    “My God!”

    Armindo moved out from around the desk, still holding his pistol at his side. He lowered his voice. “We've had some problems with discipline. But Mr. Turner was reasonable and I'm sure you and I can reach an accommodation as well. Let's say three shillings per-“

    “You'll have accommodation soon enough in Her Majesty's prison at Hong Kong. A few years walking the treadwheel will give you time to reflect on the evil you've committed here.”

    The agent moved past Armindo in the direction of his jacket.

    “Come back here!”

    “Indeed I shall. With officers of the law!”

    Armindo walked quickly after him. “I paid good money for these men and you're not leaving until you've signed the port clearance and certificate.”

    “You'll be riding a cockhorse to Banbury Cross before you'll get any papers signed by me.”

    “Damn your eyes! I'm not losing my investment because of-“ The agent put on his jacket and turned to Armindo. “Men like you are poisoning the Chinese mind against all of us. Even honest tea traders are now in danger because the Chinese think all foreigners are involved in the slave trade. 'Pig sellers' they call us.”

    Of course I knew he was right. In Swatow I had seen an angry crowd chase tea traders and denounce the selling of coolies as mai chu tsai (pig-selling) and the brokers in the trade as chu-tsai-tow (swine herds). Although I had no courage to speak out, Mr. Turner’s strength of character had electrified me in some way I did not understand. This was a foreign-devil standing up to Armindo on behalf of Chinese coolies. But I saw the anger suffuse Armindo’s face and had no wish to face his wrath.

    “Paid! Aye, paid in misery and death. Even American owners of slaves have written a petition condemning the treatment of Chinese in the Chinchas as 'barbaric'!”

    “I want that certificate; and I mean to have it.”

    “You'll get a sailing certificate from me when two Sundays come together.”

    Armindo raised his pistol.

    The man stared at him without fear but in genuine wonder. “So to your list of heinous crimes you would kill a man as well?”

    “I have done. If you force me to I will again.”

    The emigration agent took several measured steps closer to Armindo. He stood in the glow of an oil lamp not more than six feet from the barrel of the flintlock. His steel blue eyes seemed almost to shine in the light. “I have heard seamen say that what crawls over the snake’s back lies under its belly. But never in my worst nightmares, have I dreamt that a man such as you-“

    Armindo fired. I jumped at the sound. In the cloud of whitish blue smoke, Turner placed his hand to his chest, stared at Armindo still more in wonder than in shock, then fell to the floor.

Bones of the Chinamen: conclusion