The Boy Fortune Hunters in China by L. Frank Baum

Next morning after breakfast I was again summoned to attend Prince Kai Lun Pu. I may as well remark in this place that with the Chinese the surname comes first, and Kai was my new friend's family name, as mine is Steele. "Pu" with him stood in the place of "Sam" with me, and Lun was his middle name. But as the Chinese name always means something, a free translation of Kai Lun Pu into English would be "blossom of the tree," Kai being a tree, or in some connections the root of a tree. So the Prince's name was a very pretty and appropriate one, although it sounds so queer to our uncomprehending ears.

My new friend greeted me as cheerily as on the previous day, although I noted the fact that dark circles had settled around his eyes and his cheeks were a bit more hollow. The doctor was with him when I came in, and I asked if his patient had slept.

"Not a wink," he replied. "Our Prince does not intend to lose a moment of life, and so I sat up with him until after midnight myself. Then he talked to Mai Lo until daylight."

"And that was time wasted," added the Prince, with a queer glance at his attendant, "for Mai Lo has a limited vocabulary, although he is so wise and experienced. I think he spoke six words to me in return for all my chatter. So now I will excuse him from my presence until I require his services."

Mai Lo heard and prostrated himself humbly before his Prince, retiring with the stealthy glide of a ghost. The doctor was preparing his hypodermic syringe, and the sick man watched him thoughtfully.

"Do you see much change in my condition? " he presently asked.

"A little," answered the doctor. "Your vitality is wonderful. An ordinary man would have succumbed long ago."

"Am I sure of today? " enquired the Prince.

The surgeon administered the hypodermic before replying. Then he said, slowly:

"While your heart retains its action you will live; but a clot may interfere with the action at any time. I cannot promise you even today, yet you may see the light tomorrow -- or of several tomorrows."

"But not many of them?"

"Not many, Prince."

"Ah, the Earth Dragon is relentless. I cannot reach China?"

"No, indeed. To Shanghai or Hong Kong is two weeks. And there is another thing that I must speak to you about. I have no means of embalming or preserving your body."

For a moment the Prince looked grave. Then he laughed again, lightly, but I thought with little or no mirth. In spite of his Occidental education Kai Lun Pu retained the prejudices of his forefathers and longed to have his body carried to China and laid to rest in his ancestral halls.

"What a fuss old Mai Lo will make when I am cast into the sea! " he remarked. "You'll have to put him in irons, Sam, or he'll run amuck among you and cause mischief."

"If he does he shall go after you," I promised. "That is, unless you wish him preserved to carry out your bequests at home and convey your messages to your friends."

The Prince made a face so ridiculous that both Gaylord and I smiled at him.

"I will confide to you a secret," said he; "my servant is fully as repulsive to me as he is to you. But he is a man of high birth, a mandarin and the hereditary governor of my own province; so I had to carry the fellow with me on my travels."

"He looks like a dummy," I suggested.