Pearl Buck - Patriot

“There is no such place in the world,” she moaned.

“There is — there is—” he promised her. “Only promise me — you won’t marry him. I’ll plan everything — and tell you—”

There was the sound of a footstep. A twig broke. They clung together in instant terror. They saw Mr. Muraki turn the corner of the house. Tama clutched I-wan’s arms and pulled him silently into her room. They stood behind the drawn screens, scarcely twenty feet from him. For he had paused before the waterfall and stood there, his head bent. They could see his hair shining in the moonlight. In his hand he held a spray of white crape myrtle flowers which he had broken as he passed the tree. He stood so long their bodies were tense with waiting. Then he stooped and laid the myrtle in the pool beneath the waterfall. They heard him sigh and saw him turn away and walk on feebly into the further garden.

But they dared not linger. I-wan stooped to Tama’s cheek. It smelled as fresh as an apricot, and felt as downy smooth beneath his.

“Promise!” he whispered.

“Oh,” she breathed, “you must go!”

“Promise only to wait!” he begged. “At least until we find out whether there really is, to be war or not. It may be nothing.”

He felt her lips move upon his cheek, soft and warm.

“Go — go,” she whispered, “I hear something.”

He slipped out into the moonlight and darted to his room. Surely, he thought, surely there were islands in the sea, far from any wars and troubles that other people made! He lay tense on his bed. Surely there were such islands! And then he remembered that she had not promised.

“This,” Mr. Muraki was saying, “is General Seki.” I-wan had eaten his breakfast alone the next morning, and afterwards, not knowing what part of his still unformed plans should come first, he had gone into the room which the family called the modern parlor. He still preferred chairs to sit upon rather than mats, and in this room there were large stiff foreign chairs, upholstered in bright green plush. Years ago, before the main offices had been moved to Yokohama, Mr. Muraki had seen the room in a department store and had bought it entire, in order to have a place in which he could entertain American and European customers. It was seldom used now, and there I-wan had sometimes gone when he wished to read or to be alone in this house of sliding screens, since the room had walls and doors in the western fashion.

He had scarcely sat down this morning, however, and lit a cigarette, when the door opened suddenly and he saw Mr. Muraki and behind him a thick short figure in uniform. I-wan leaped to his feet. And Mr. Muraki looked astonished for one instant. I-wan bowed. All his blood seemed in one second to rush to his brain to whirl there in a frenzy, leaving his body cold and weak.

“This,” Mr. Muraki said to General Seki, “is the son of the Chinese banker, Wu Yung Hsin.”

General Seki nodded his head sharply at I-wan.

“I was just going, sir,” I-wan said to Mr. Muraki.

“No,” General Seki answered. “You will stay.” He sat down with difficulty in his stiff new uniform and his sword clanked against the chair.

“As you please,” Mr. Muraki murmured to General Seki.

So I-wan could only sit down uncomfortably upon the edge of a straight wooden chair. From the tumult in his brain certain thoughts began to sort themselves. This disgusting, thick-necked man! He looked strangely like a turtle, his neckless, bullet head sunk into his big collar. He had a square, flat-surfaced face and a short brush of gray mustache. Yet he did not look old, I-wan thought, cursing him. He looked, though not young, vigorous and harsh and domineering.

“It may be you can give me some information,” General Seki said, turning to him. “Can you tell me in what cities in Manchuria your father’s bank has branches?”

Instantly I-wan thought, “I will tell him nothing.” He remembered now that he had heard En-lan say once that Japanese were always asking questions and trying to find out even small things that were apparently of no use. But this was stupid, to think he—

“I don’t know,” he said.

“It seems strange you don’t know,” General Seki said, after a second’s pause. He stared at I-wan hard. “But it does not matter. I have the information at my headquarters. I merely asked as a detail in discussing plans with Mr. Muraki. Perhaps then you can tell me how far, in hours, Peking is from Harbin?”

“I have spent most of my life in Shanghai,” I-wan answered.

A small purple vein began to beat in General Seki’s forehead. He turned to Mr. Muraki and spoke in a loud voice.

“Let the plan stay as I have said. It will not be a real war — three weeks will be enough to crush a few rebellious Chinese. There is too little time now — I leave at once. But when I come I will take a holiday”—he paused to grin hideously—“it will be the happiest of my life.”

I-wan sat staring at this man. He began to feel that General Seki wanted to punish him because he was a Chinese, or at least to frighten him. In his heart a furious anger began to burn. Suddenly his head felt clear and cool. Three weeks would be enough, would it? A few minutes ago he would have said it would be impossible for him to hate Japan. But now he had found something in Japan to hate — it was this man, this militarist, this arrogant, overbearing, ambitious overlord sitting before him, who wanted to marry Tama.

“You expect no resistance?” he asked quietly.

“If there is resistance from the Chinese,” General Seki said haughtily, “we will begin bombing—”

All the hatred of which he was capable rushed to I-wan’s heart. He stood up. The important thing was not his hatred — it was that there would be no war.

He turned suddenly and walked, a little unsteadily, out of the room and shut the door. Outside he stood a moment. He felt sick and short-breathed. Yet his head was perfectly clear. He must find Tama and tell her that Seki himself had said it would not be a real war.

A maid passed bearing an oblong bowl of freshly arranged flowers.

“Where is Tama-san?” he demanded.

She looked at him, surprised. “In the east veranda, sir,” she answered, “arranging the flowers.”

He had never been in the inner parts of this house, for it was not customary for the men to go there. But now he went east through the kitchen. And there beyond, upon a small square veranda, he found Tama alone, flowers and grasses heaped on the table before her. She was choosing a handful of silvery grass to put in a vase with the red spider lilies, but when she saw him she stopped.

“I-wan, you—” she began.

But he broke out ahead of her. “Tama,” he cried, “he is horrible!”

She stood there clutching the silver grasses. He saw her eyes sicken.

“Yes, he is horrible,” she whispered. “I saw him yesterday, after I had said—”

“There is to be no war!” he broke in. “Seki says there will be no war!” He told her what he had heard and then he thought of his father and used him shamelessly. “Men like my father — they will never allow a war with Japan. And my father has power, Tama — enormous power — money—”

He felt a faint reminiscent rising of old gorge in him. How En-lan would have despised him for such an argument! En-lan would never be able, either, to understand how he felt about this Japanese girl, how he loved her. En-lan would not understand how anyone could love a Japanese.

“Of course, if there is no war—” Tama said, slowly, “then everything is changed. If it is only my father, trying to force me—”

“I swear there will be no war!” he exclaimed.

The maidservants were beginning to flutter about them, seeming to be busy about sweeping and dusting. “Shall I help you, lady?” one piped, and then another.