He Swallows Gold

He Swallows Gold by H. Bedford-Jones

Reginald Carefrew arrives in Sabang from Batavia, having fled a swindling scheme worked twice on Chinese victims, first in Singapore and then in Batavia, with his wife Ruth left behind to settle his affairs before joining him for the voyage to Colombo and Europe. His brother-in-law, Huber Davis, an old Sabang trader who has built his business on close dealings with the Chinese, warns him that the Straits Chinese still honor old beliefs about vengeance and that Carefrew, having driven several men to suicide, has effectively made himself their murderer under those beliefs. He specifically warns Carefrew to stay indoors and to avoid Li Mow Gee, the wealthy, well-connected merchant of the Street of the Heavenly Elbow. Carefrew scoffs, dismissing the old superstitions as belonging to "New China," and refuses to be housebound. Li Mow Gee, whose father's younger brother has become an "ancient" (died) because of Carefrew's swindling, consults Mr. Chang, the spectacled Venerable Master of the local Heaven-and-Earth Society lodge, of which Li is a member. Citing the Confucian Book of Rites on the duty to avenge a slain kinsman, Li arranges to have a sacred three-armed jade candlestick of the Society, marked with characters for chalk, charcoal, and water, planted at absurdly low price in his Benevolent Brethren Bazaar, with clerks instructed to sell it to no one but Carefrew. Carefrew, shopping for silks, spots the candlestick, buys it for nine florins believing he has swindled ignorant shopkeepers out of a valuable antique, and has his silk purchases sent to Huber Davis's bungalow. He learns from a clerk a cover story that the piece was left long ago by a forgotten Hindu or Arab trader. Delighted, he then buys three special red temple candles from another Chinese shop displayed conveniently that same morning, fits them to the candlestick, and lights them, getting the soft red greasepaint on his fingers, which will not wash off and itches. Huber Davis, uneasy about the bargain, notices the stained hands and also learns from his Batavia agent that Ruth had a badly bruised arm, which he privately concludes Carefrew inflicted on her, deepening his contempt for his brother-in-law though he says nothing openly. Huber Davis visits Li Mow Gee on business and shows him the three ideographs copied from the candlestick. Li Mow Gee reveals they mark it as an object of the Heaven-and-Earth Society and offers, for friendship's sake, to buy back the candlestick and candles and smooth over any trouble, provided Huber Davis brings them quickly. Huber Davis returns home, buys the candlestick and candles from Carefrew for $150 under pretense of merely liking the piece, and delivers them to Li Mow Gee, who repays him the original nineteen florins to keep accounts "straight" — florins that had in fact come from Carefrew through Li's own agents. Alone, Li Mow Gee takes the candles into a hidden laboratory room, drenches them in oil within their bamboo cradles, and burns them to char on an ironwood table, then confirms to Mr. Chang that the ancestral spirits have been satisfied. On the day Ruth's ship is due, Huber Davis wires her to disembark and cancel onward passage. Dr. Brossot is called to examine Carefrew, who has developed fever and chills; initially the doctor suspects influenza, then reconsiders, finding no pneumonia and no clear cause, and settles on recording the death as "heart failure" — noting that the Chinese have their own polite term for such a death: that the victim has "swallowed gold." Huber Davis, reflecting on the phrase, believes it fits the truth of what happened, while remaining ignorant of the greasepaint's true role and of Li Mow Gee's hidden laboratory, which no one else knows about either.

By H. Bedford-Jones · First published 1919 · Genre: Mystery, Revenge, Thriller · 5 chapters · 6,501 words

First lines

"We, all of us," said Huber Davis reflectively, "like to show off _how_ we do things; we like to tell people about our methods; we like to exposit our particular way of managing affairs. Each of us thinks he is a little tin god in that respect, Carefrew. That's the way of a white man. A Chinaman, however, is just the opposite. He does _not_ want to show his methods. He does things in a damned mysterious way -- and he never tells."

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Sabang · Sumatra · Dutch East Indies · short story · thriller · revenge · swindling · cultural conflict · imperialism · irony · cynicism · jade candlestick

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He Swallows Gold is listed on Textopian as a short story by H. Bedford-Jones, dated 1919 CE.

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