Tongues of Serpents Page 0,124

respective governments should discuss such amendments to the treaty as would satisfy them both - "

But Jia Zhen was not to be persuaded, not without reason; he did not refuse outright, but spoke in a calm and roundabout fashion of the difficulty of managing the sea-serpents, the impossibility of interrupting their peregrinations without causing their training to founder, and the expense of providing their food, which must be supported by the trade; he also, to Laurence's dismay, spoke of the warehouses which were to be constructed, and added, "By the order of the Emperor, several craftsmen have already been commanded to prepare themselves and their families to make the journey: Lung Shen Li will bring them hence on her next journey." This of course was very like throwing tinder onto a fire, and likely only to stir further enthusiasm on Willoughby's part for immediate action.

"There was no real hope, of course," Laurence said, low and bleak, when they had ended the fruitless audience.

"If it is any comfort," Tharkay said, "I doubt whatever concessions you might have wrung from them would satisfy Willoughby. He is here to take the port; nothing less will content him, and he does not strike me as that political sort of creature who might be persuaded by an appeal to his caution."

"But he is wholly unreasonable," Temeraire protested. "It is not as though Britain had built a port here, and the Chinese were taking it away; we had months to travel only to reach here at all."

That the port was strategically placed so as to easily wreck all of Britain's shipping, and her mastery of the Indian Ocean, did not appease him. "I do not see how one small country can complain if it does not rule all the oceans of the world, even those which are quite upon the other side," he said, "and after all, have we not heard that Java is only on the other side of the water here, and the Dutch are there, and our friends? Why does Willoughby not go there and say, Those are yours, and hand them over."

"He would," Tharkay said, "but they are defended with modern guns and modern navies, which can raise the price of making such a demand."

Granby was kind enough to make one final attempt: they flew over with Caesar once more, and he remonstrated with Willoughby, who if he heard, did not show any particular interest in listening. When Granby had finished, he nodded, and then said, "Well, I have heard you out, and now, Captain Granby, and Captain Rankin, I am giving you a damned order: you will get your beasts and all these others out of the port. We scarcely need your help to secure the place, so you need not involve yourself, if you do not choose to - I will be happy," he added coldly, "to forward your reasoning to Whitehall. All I require is that you do not interfere with my orders, and we will manage the thing ourselves."

"So he means to smash up all the port," Temeraire said, "and maybe kill Jia Zhen, who has been so kind to us, or the Larrakia: when I think of the tremendous, the extraordinary generosity which has been shown us - oh! what a wretched little worm this Willoughby fellow must be; it is no wonder he should like Rankin so."

Laurence said somberly, "I am afraid the fault was ours in accepting that hospitality when we had so little information on the position which our nation had taken, or might choose to; there was reason enough to know the Government would dislike it, if not to guess they should risk a war over the matter. They may," he added, "suppose that a sharp rebuke here will warn China off from any similar attempts."

He looked up at Temeraire and said, "I do not say I like it, my dear; I do not, in the least, and Willoughby is the last man I would wish to see entrusted with the power to offer so great an insult to any foreign power not already our enemy. But he has been entrusted with that power, and this is an open and honest act of warfare. The enemy has been offered terms, and however little I think of Willoughby, I know of no reason to suspect he will refuse quarter when surrender has been given. I hope a warning shot will be sufficient to persuade Jia Zhen not to prolong the engagement.

"If it is any