Lost Horizon (9 page)

There followed another silence.

“You won’t tell me, then? It’s part of the mystery of everything else, I suppose. Conway, I must say I think you’re damned slack. Why don’t
you
get at the truth? I’m all in, for the time being—but—tomorrow, mind—we
must
get away tomorrow—it’s essential—”

He would have slid to the floor had not Conway caught him and helped him to a chair. Then he recovered a little, but did not speak.

“Tomorrow he will be much better,” said Chang gently. “The air here is difficult for the stranger at first, but one soon becomes acclimatized.”

Conway felt himself waking from a trance. “Things have been a little trying for him,” he commented with rather rueful mildness. He added, more briskly: “I expect we’re all feeling it somewhat. I think we’d better adjourn this discussion and go to bed. Barnard, will you look after Mallinson? And I’m sure
you’re
in need of sleep too, Miss Brinklow.” There had been some signal given, for at that moment a servant appeared. “Yes, we’ll get along—good night—good night—I shall soon follow.” He almost pushed them out of the room, and then, with a scantness of ceremony that was in marked contrast with his earlier manner, turned to his host. Mallinson’s reproach had spurred him.

“Now, sir, I don’t want to detain you long, so I’d better come to the point. My friend is impetuous, but I don’t blame him, he’s quite right to make things clear. Our return journey has to be arranged, and we can’t do it without help from you or from others in this place. Of course, I realize that leaving to-morrow is impossible, and for my own part I hope to find a minimum stay quite interesting. But that, perhaps, is not the attitude of my companions. So if it’s true, as you say, that you can do nothing for us yourself, please put us in touch with some one else who can.”

The Chinese answered: “You are wiser than your friends, my dear sir, and therefore you are less impatient. I am glad.”

“That’s not an answer.”

Chang began to laugh, a jerky high pitched chuckle so obviously forced that Conway recognized in it the polite pretense of seeing an imaginary joke with which the Chinese “saves face” at awkward moments. “I feel sure you have no cause to worry about the matter,” came the reply, after an interval. “No doubt in due course we shall be able to give you all the help you need. There are difficulties, as you can imagine, but if we all approach the problem sensibly, and without undue haste—”

“I’m not suggesting haste. I’m merely seeking information about porters.”

“Well, my dear sir, that raises another point. I very much doubt whether you will easily find men willing to undertake such a journey. They have their homes in the valley, and they don’t care for leaving them to make long and arduous trips outside.”

“They can be prevailed upon to do so, though, or else why and where were they escorting you this morning?”

“This morning? Oh, that was quite a different matter.”

“In what way? Weren’t you setting out on a journey when I and my friends chanced to come across you?”

There was no response to this, and presently Conway continued in a quieter voice: “I understand. Then it was
not
a chance meeting. I had wondered all along, in fact. So you came there deliberately to intercept us. That suggests you must have known of our arrival beforehand. And the interesting question is,
How
?”

His words laid a note of stress amidst the exquisite quietude of the scene. The lantern light showed up the face of the Chinese; it was calm and statuesque. Suddenly, with a small gesture of the hand, Chang broke the strain; pulling aside a silken tapestry, he undraped a window leading to a balcony. Then, with a touch upon Conway’s arm, he led him into the cold crystal air. “You are clever,” he said dreamily, “but not entirely correct. For that reason I should counsel you not to worry your friends by these abstract discussions. Believe me, neither you nor they are in any danger at Shangri-La.”

“But it isn’t danger we’re bothering about. It’s delay.”

“I realize that. And of course there
may
be a certain delay, quite unavoidably.”

“If it’s only for a short time, and genuinely unavoidable, then naturally we shall have to put up with it as best we can.”

“How very sensible, for we desire nothing more than that you and your companions should enjoy your stay here.”

“That’s all very well, and as I told you, in a personal sense I can’t say I shall mind a great deal. It’s a new and interesting experience, and in any case, we need some rest.”

He was gazing upwards to the gleaming pyramid of Karakal. At that moment, in bright moonlight, it seemed as if a hand reached high might just touch it; it was so brittle-clear against the blue immensity beyond.

“Tomorrow,” said Chang, “you may find it even more interesting. And as for rest, if you are fatigued, there are not many better places in the world.”

Indeed, as Conway continued to gaze, a deeper repose overspread him, as if the spectacle were as much for the mind as for the eye. There was hardly any stir of wind, in contrast to the upland gales that had raged the night before; the whole valley, he perceived, was a land-locked harbor, with Karakal brooding over it, lighthouse-fashion. The smile grew as he considered it, for there was actually light on the summit, an ice blue gleam that matched the splendor it reflected. Something prompted him then to enquire the literal interpretation of the name, and Chang’s answer came as a whispered echo of his own musing. “Karakal, in the valley patois, means Blue Moon,” said the Chinese.

CONWAY DID NOT PASS
on his conclusion that the arrival of himself and party at Shangri-La had been in some way expected by its inhabitants. He had had it in mind that he must do so, and he was aware that the matter was important; but when morning came his awareness troubled him so little, in any but a theoretical sense, that he shrank from being the cause of greater concern in others. One part of him insisted that there was something distinctly queer about the place, that the attitude of Chang on the previous evening had been far from reassuring, and that the party were virtually prisoners unless and until the authorities chose to do more for them. And it was clearly his duty to compel them to do this. After all, he was a representative of the British Government, if nothing else; it was iniquitous that the inmates of a Tibetan monastery should refuse him any proper request .… That, no doubt, was the normal official view that would be taken; and part of Conway was both normal and official. No one could better play the strong man on occasions; during those final difficult days before the evacuation he had behaved in a manner which (he reflected wryly) should earn him nothing less than a knighthood and a Henty school prize novel entitled
With Conway at Baskul
. To have taken on himself the leadership of some scores of mixed civilians, including women and children, to have sheltered them all in a small consulate during a hot-blooded revolution led by anti-foreign agitators, and to have bullied and cajoled the revolutionaries into permitting a wholesale evacuation by air, it was not, he felt, a bad achievement. Perhaps by pulling wires and writing interminable reports, he could wangle something out of it in the next New Year Honors. At any rate it had won him Mallinson’s fervent admiration. Unfortunately, the youth must now be finding him so much more of a disappointment. It was a pity, of course, but Conway had grown used to people liking him only because they misunderstood him. He was not genuinely one of those resolute, strong-jawed, hammer-and-tongs empire builders; the semblance he had given was merely a little one-act play, repeated from time to time by arrangement with fate and the Foreign Office, and for a salary which any one could turn up in the pages of Whitaker.

The truth was, the puzzle of Shangri-La, and of his own arrival there, was beginning to exercise over him a rather charming fascination. In any case he found it hard to feel any personal misgivings. His official job was always liable to take him into odd parts of the world, and the odder they were, the less, as a rule, he suffered from boredom; why, then, grumble because accident, instead of a chit from Whitehall, had sent him to this oddest place of all?

He was, in fact, very far from grumbling. When he rose in the morning and saw the soft lapis blue of the sky through his window, he would not have chosen to be elsewhere on earth either in Peshawar or Piccadilly. He was glad to find that on the others, also, a night’s repose had had a heartening effect. Barnard was able to joke quite cheerfully about beds, baths, breakfasts, and other hospitable amenities. Miss Brinklow admitted that the most strenuous search of her apartment had failed to reveal any of the drawbacks she had been well prepared for. Even Mallinson had acquired a touch of half sulky complacency. “I suppose we shan’t get away today after all,” he muttered, “unless somebody looks pretty sharp about it. Those fellows are typically Oriental, you can’t get them to do anything quickly and efficiently.”

Conway accepted the remark. Mallinson had been out of England just under a year; long enough, no doubt, to justify a generalization which he would probably still repeat when he had been out for twenty. And it was true, of course, in some degree. Yet to Conway it did not appear that the Eastern races were abnormally dilatory, but rather that Englishmen and Americans charged about the world in a state of continual and rather preposterous fever-heat. It was a point of view that he hardly expected any fellow Westerner to share, but he was more faithful to it as he grew older in years and experience. On the other hand, it was true enough that Chang was a subtle quibbler and that there was much justification for Mallinson’s impatience. Conway had a slight wish that he could feel impatient too; it would have been so much easier for the boy.

He said: “I think we’d better wait and see what today brings. It was perhaps too optimistic to expect them to do anything last night.”

Mallinson looked up sharply. “I suppose you think I made a fool of myself, being so urgent? I couldn’t help it; I thought that Chinese fellow was damned fishy, and I do still. Did you succeed in getting any sense out of him after I’d gone to bed?”

“We didn’t stay talking long. He was rather vague and noncommittal about most things.”

“We shall jolly well have to keep him up to scratch today.”

“No doubt,” agreed Conway, without marked enthusiasm for the prospect. “Meanwhile this is an excellent breakfast.” It consisted of pomelo, tea, and chupatties, perfectly prepared and served. Towards the finish of the meal Chang entered and with a little bow began the exchange of politely conventional greetings which, in the English language, sounded just a trifle unwieldy. Conway would have preferred to talk in Chinese, but so far he had not let it be known that he spoke any Eastern tongue; he felt it might be a useful card up his sleeve. He listened gravely to Chang’s courtesies, and gave assurances that he had slept well and felt much better. Chang expressed his pleasure at that, and added: “Truly, as your national poet says, ‘Sleep knits up the raveled sleeve of care.’”

This display of erudition was not too well received. Mallinson answered with that touch of scorn which any healthy-minded young Englishman must feel at the mention of poetry. “I suppose you mean Shakespeare, though I don’t recognize the quotation. But I know another one that says ‘Stand not upon the order of your going, but go at once.’ Without being impolite, that’s rather what we should all like to do. And I want to hunt round for those porters right away, this morning, if you’ve no objection.”

The Chinese received the ultimatum impassively, replying at length: “I am sorry to tell you that it would be of little use. I fear we have no men available who would be willing to accompany you so far from their homes.”

“But good God, man, you don’t suppose we’re going to take that for an answer, do you?”

“I am sincerely regretful, but I can suggest no other.”

“You seem to have figgered it all out since last night,” put in Barnard. “You weren’t nearly so dead sure of things then.”

“I did not wish to disappoint you when you were so tired from your journey. Now, after a refreshing night, I am in hope that you will see matters in a more reasonable light.”

“Look here,” intervened Conway briskly, “this sort of vagueness and prevarication won’t do. You know we can’t stay here indefinitely. It’s equally obvious that we can’t get away by ourselves. What, then, do you propose?”

Chang smiled with a radiance that was clearly for Conway alone. “My dear sir, it is a pleasure to make the suggestion that is in my mind. To your friend’s attitude there was no answer, but to the demand of a wise man there is always a response. You may recollect that it was remarked yesterday, again by your friend, I believe, that we are bound to have occasional communication with the outside world. That is quite true. From time to time we require certain things from distant
entrepôts
, and it is our habit to obtain them in due course, by what methods and with what formalities I need not trouble you. The point of importance is that such a consignment is expected to arrive shortly, and as the men who make delivery will afterwards return, it seems to me that you might manage to come to some arrangement with them. Indeed I cannot think of a better plan, and I hope, when they arrive—”

“When
do
they arrive?” interrupted Mallinson bluntly.

“The exact date is, of course, impossible to forecast. You have yourself had the experience of the difficulty of movement in this part of the world. A hundred things may happen to cause uncertainty, hazards of weather—”

Conway again intervened. “Let’s get this clear. You’re suggesting that we should employ as porters the men who are shortly due here with some goods. That’s not a bad idea as far as it goes, but we must know a little more about it. First, as you’ve already been asked, when are these people expected? And second, where will they take us?”

“That is a question you would have to put to them.”

“Would they take us to India?”

“It is hardly possible for me to say.”

“Well, let’s have an answer to the other question. When will they be here? I don’t ask for a date, I just want some idea whether it’s likely to be next week or next year.”