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Miao Shan called the t'u-ti and bade him go and beg all the Immortals to disguise themselves as pirates and to besiege the mountain, waving torches, and threatening with swords and spears to kill her. "Then I will seek refuge on the summit, and thence leap over the precipice to prove Shan Ts'ai's fidelity and affection."
These things are riddles. Ah! Here comes my friend Immelan!" he went on. "Immelan, help us in this discussion. You are not one of those who place the gift of life above all other things in the world!" "My own or another's?" Immelan asked, with blunt cynicism. "I trust," was the bland reply, "that you are, as I have always esteemed you, an altruist." "And why?" Prince Shan shrugged his shoulders.
What shall we do with it?" "The mightiest sword is that which enforces peace," was the calm reply. "Highness, the lady whom you were expecting waits in the anteroom." Prince Shan nodded. He welcomed Naida, who was ushered in a moment or two later, with rather more than his usual grave and pleasant courtesy, leading her himself to a chair.
But while watching from the pavilion the servant-boys carrying the enclosing screens and rubbing the tables and the gold and silver sacrificial utensils, he perceived a lad appear on the scene holding a petition and a list, and report that 'Wu, the head-farmer in the Hei Shan village, had arrived. "What does this old executioner come for to-day?" Chia Chen exclaimed.
Watching the rice, sat, or rather squatted, a couple of Shan boatmen, and their boat was moored to a tree at the water's edge. "Hallo!" cried Jack, "these chaps have got a big boat here. Can't we get them to run us and our stuff up the river?" "By George!" said Jim Dent, "there's something in that." "Ask them, Me Dain," called Jack. "Tell them we'll pay them well if they'll carry us up the river."
From within came the sounds of instruments of wood and string with the measured beating of a drum; nothing had fallen short, for on that forbidden day, incredibly blind to the depths of his impiety, the ill-starred Mandarin Shan Tien was having music!
As no one suffered inconvenience at his attitude, however, Shan Tien's expression assumed a more unbending cast. "Let the witnesses appear," he commanded sharply. "In so clear a case it has not been thought necessary to incur the expense of hiring the usual witnesses," urged Ming-shu; "but they are doubtless clustered about the opium floor and will, if necessary, testify to whatever is required."
May it not be that the pleasant meetings on the Tung Shan might yield in merit to those, such as ourselves, of the weaker sex? Should you not think it too much to walk on the snow, I shall make bold to ask you round, and sweep the way clean of flowers and wait for you. Respectfully written." The perusal of this note filled Pao-yue unawares with exultation.
"Enough to convince me that I am going to see Shan Tung today," he said. He noticed the slow clenching and unclenching of McDowell's fingers about the arms of his chair. "Then I was right?" "I have every reason to believe you were up to a certain point. I shall know positively when I have talked with Shan Tung." He smiled grimly. McDowell's eyes were no harder than his own.
The Timely Intervention of the Mandarin Shan Tien's Lucky Day When Kai Lung at length reached the shutter, after the delay caused by Li-loe's inopportune presence, he found that Hwa-mei was already standing there beneath the wall. "Alas!" he exclaimed, in an access of self-reproach, "is it possible that I have failed to greet your arriving footsteps? Hear the degrading cause of my "
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