The
first heavy weather--'
"'Can this be possible?' I said through clenched teeth.
"'Oh, yes, so easily possible that it happened,' answered Lee Fu.
"'But why should he do such a thing? Had he anything against Turner?'
"'Captain, you do not understand. He merely was tired of the vessel; and
freights are becoming very poor. He wanted his insurance. He had no
thought of disaster so he now assures himself; what he had in mind was
for the ship to sink discreetly in pleasant weather. Yet he was willing
enough to run the chance of wholesale murder.'
"I got up and began pacing the floor; the damnable affair had made me
sick at heart, and a little sick at the stomach.
"'Thus the gods have struck,' said Lee Fu behind me, in that changeless
voice that for a moment seemed to concentrate the echo of the ages.
'There is blood at last, Captain--twenty-seven lives, and among them one
dear to us--enough even to convince one of your race that a crime has
been committed. But I was mistaken in much that I foresaw. The criminal,
it seems, is destined not to suffer. He has escaped the gods.'
"Can't you bring him to a reckoning? Isn't there some way--'
"Lee Fu shook his head. 'No, Captain, he is amply protected. What could
I accomplish in your courts with this fantastic tale, and for witnesses
a coolie and a sampan man?'
"I continued to pace the floor, thinking dark thoughts.
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