The Fate Joss

CHAPTER IV THE MIGHTY JOSS

WHILE Doctor Roy Tam was seated alone in the seclusion of his office, strange events were shaping elsewhere. A taxicab had pulled up in front of an old house on the upper East Side; two men were alighting, suitcases in their hands.

One was an American, tall, pale-faced, with light-colored mustache. The other looked like a Japanese; but his build was unusually bulky for a member of that race. The American paid the driver and picked up a suitcase; his companion lifted two larger, heavier bags. Together, they ascended the steps of the house.

“Here we are, Satsu,” chuckled the American. “The place doesn’t look so inviting, though, does it! Maybe it will be better after we open those boarded windows.”

“I shall open them tomorrow, Mr. Laudring,” replied the other man in choppy, oddly pronounced English. “You have the key to the door, sir?”

“Here it is.” Laudring unlocked the door. “Come on, Satsu, bring in the bags and we’ll take a look about.”

The two entered a musty hallway. Laudring found a light switch and pressed it. Glowing bulbs showed plain furnishings, with curtains by a doorway on the right. Laudring glanced toward a carpeted stairway; then decided to enter the room beyond the curtains.

He found another light switch; the subsequent illumination showed the room to be a furnished parlor. Laudring picked out an antique chair and sat down. He found it comfortable.

“Park the bags, Satsu,” he said with a laugh. “Let’s talk this over while I smoke a cigar. Then we can go upstairs and see what the rest of the place is like.”

“Very well, sir.”

Laudring lighted a panatela and leaned back in his chair. Satsu sat down on the edge of a piano bench and solemnly eyed his master. Laudring began to talk, his tone reminiscent, and tinged with an occasional chuckle.

“THE adventures of Chichester Laudring,” he resumed. “They have been odd ones, Satsu, as you can testify; even though you were not in at the beginning. It started in China, when I visited that old temple of Je Ho, on the border of Manchukuo.

“There I found the Fate Joss, solitary and neglected, except for the two ancient cannons that guarded him. There was trouble brewing thereabouts, Satsu. Those irregular troops — little better than bandits — were broken up, fearing the approach of General Cho Tsing. They wanted to leave that terrain.

“So I bribed a dozen of them to carry away the Fate Joss. We packed it in an old wagon and there was room for the cannons, so I brought them along, too. Roads were still passable; and when we met the scouts of Cho Tsing’s army, I bluffed them into thinking that my companions were coolies who had accompanied me on a trip from Canton.”

Laudring paused to puff his cigar. He eyed Satsu; then spoke again.

“We crossed Manchukuo,” he recalled. “That was when I met you, Satsu. Remember, how I took you for a Japanese; how, indignantly, you told me you were a Korean?”

Satsu nodded; his eyes showed a glower at the recollection. Laudring laughed.

“You came with me to the United States,” he declared. “by way of Mexico, where I smuggled you across the border along with the Fate Joss and those War Dog cannons. I thought my troubles were over. They had only begun.”

Again Laudring paused for reflection.

“That Fate Joss proved a white elephant,” he maintained. “I figured it would be worth plenty, like some of the other oddities that I have brought back from foreign soil. But getting rid of a half-ton statue was no soft job.

“Museums had no money. They wanted it for a gift. So I went to their sponsors and couldn’t find any who had the cash I wanted. I even sent you to Chinatown in Frisco. Remember, Satsu, I thought for a while that you could make a deal there. You became quite friendly with some of the Chinese.”

Satsu nodded, but made no comment.

“My last bet was Chicago,” recalled Laudring. “Old Dustin Clabb, the eccentric millionaire. He’d buy anything, Satsu, provided it interested him. It took all the cash I had left to get us there with the Fate Joss. Remember how Clabb’s eyes popped when he saw it?”

Satsu grinned at the recollection.

“Fifty thousand dollars, spot cash,” resumed Laudring. “We helped Clabb and his servants shove the Fate Joss in that huge vault of his. It was almost a last-minute sale, for Clabb went abroad about ten days later.

“We didn’t wait in Chicago, though, did we, Satsu? Not a chance, once we had unloaded the Fate Joss. You know I was getting worried about that Fate Joss. The Chinese are pretty touchy about their idols. I was afraid of trouble; and I was mighty glad to pass the burden on to Dustin Clabb.

“He had the place to keep the Fate Joss. Nobody could ever crack that vault of his. He’s gone to Europe; the Fate Joss will be forgotten by the time he comes back. It will be there, with the War Dogs, when he comes home. Clabb is welcome to it.”

Satsu decided to speak. The Korean’s broad, yellow face was spread in a solemn grin.

“Perhaps, sir,” said Satsu, “the Fate Joss will not stay with Mr. Clabb. It may think that it is time for it to return to China. To the temple of Je Ho.”

“The old superstition,” chuckled Laudring. “I told you about it, didn’t I, Satsu! Those Chinese soldiers half believed in it. All the way from Jehol to Manchukuo they were wondering if the Joss would disappear, War Dogs and all.

“Well, if the Fate Joss wants to go back to China, that will be Clabb’s hard luck. Only” — Laudring paused with a chortle — “I hope it doesn’t decide to wish itself back with me. I have the money I wanted. I never want to see the Fate Joss again.”

LAUDRING finished his smoke; he dropped the cigar in an ash tray and motioned to Satsu to follow him. They walked about the ground floor, finding a dining room and kitchen, tidily furnished. A door led to the cellar, but it was locked, with no key.

Laudring saw a telephone on a table; he lifted the receiver and heard the buzz that indicated that the wire was connected.

The two ascended the stairs and found two furnished bedrooms on the second floor. Laudring chose the front one and ordered Satsu to bring up the bags.

While the Korean was gone, Laudring saw two keys on the bureau. He decided that one was for the back door; the other to the cellar. Lighting a fresh cigar, Laudring sat down as Satsu entered.

“This house is an adventure in itself,” remarked the American. “An anticlimax, I admit, but intriguing nevertheless. Something of a mystery that I do not quite understand. When we left Chicago, Satsu, we went directly to that lodge in the Adirondacks, where we were away from everything, telephones included.

“No one knew we were there — no one except Clabb; and he went to Europe — yet that letter reached me. The letter from the lawyer. What was his name? I remember now: Charles Boford. That letter told me of this house, a legacy to me from my Uncle Felix.”

“The key to the house came with it,” reminded Satsu.

“That’s right,” agreed Laudring. “But I never knew I had an Uncle Felix; I’d never even heard mention of such a person. But since the house was to be mine if I occupied it promptly, it seemed best to come here. I suppose we shall hear from Boford shortly; he said in the letter that he would visit me shortly after my arrival.

“But speaking of keys, Satsu, here are two that I found. They probably belong to the downstairs doors. Come; let us continue our exploration of the premises.”

ARRIVING downstairs, Laudring went past the parlor, then through the dining room into the kitchen. He tried a key in the outer door; it fitted. Laudring unlocked the door; then locked it again and left the key inside the door. Satsu had followed him; beckoning to the Korean, Laudring led the way to the cellar door that stood beneath the stairway.

The second key fitted that lock.

Opening the door, Laudring found a switch and pressed it. Lights gleamed below. Descending with Satsu, Laudring reached the cellar and took an opening that led between two coal bins. Passing those boarded barriers, he turned into the center of the cellar itself.

Satsu, half a dozen paces behind, stopped short as he heard a startled hiss from Laudring’s lips. Looking from the passage, the Korean saw his master standing with fixed stare, looking into the main room of the cellar. Laudring’s hands were shaking; his eyes were riveted by what they saw.

Satsu bounded forward. Like master, the servant stopped short. His yellow face paled; he, too, was transfixed. Even though he had observed Laudring’s startlement, Satsu had not guessed — or even dreamed — the cause.

Facing the astonished men was a hideous, grotesque statue that occupied the center of the cellar. Taller, bulkier than human size, its height seemed greater because of the one foot pedestal that formed a part of it.

Like a dream from a Shanghai nightmare, the figure formed a glittering mass of bronze. Its brawny arms and legs were streaked with snakelike veins. Its body was swathed with sculptured garb of metal; beside it, a portion of the statue, hung a long, sheathed sword with massive handle.

The hands of the statue were upraised, supporting the sculptured likeness of a decorative sash that hung behind the idol’s neck. The glaring features were distorted with a horrible leer, which showed fang-like teeth of bronze between thick, outspread lips.

Claw-like nails of fingers and toes were of glittering gold that formed a contrast to the duller bronze. Gold was the handle of the sword; so were portions of the garments. Most startling of all were the eyeballs; for they, too, were of shining gold with blood-red garnets as their pupils. Bulging, those eyes seemed to glare at the intruders.

Other jewels glimmered; they, however, were but ornamental portions of the sculptured figure’s garb. To Laudring and Satsu, those gems were incidental. So were the two other sculptured objects that stood with the huge idol, one on either side.

These were squatty, dog-shaped figures that came only to the idol’s knees. Their mouths were as wide as their bodies, for these seated statues were actually ancient cannons. Their muzzles were fitted with plugs, which detracted from their warlike appearance; but that did not calm Laudring and Satsu. Their eyes scarcely noted the guardian dogs of war.

The huge statue was what held them, as powerfully as if it had been a creature of life. For its very presence in this unexpected place imbued it with a power that seemed superhuman. Chichester Laudring and his servant were staring at the bronze idol that they had stowed in Dustin Clabb’s vault.

This towering, glaring thing of bronze that had arisen to confront them was the mighty Fate Joss from the temple of Je Ho!