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In strength and endurance he outpaced all the youths around, while in the manipulation of the raft and the dexterous handling of the cormorants he covered Ten-teh with gratified shame.
"Alas!" exclaimed Ten-teh, "why has the end tarried thus long if it be but for this person's ears to carry to the grave so tormenting a message! Yet how comes it, O stranger, that having been admitted to Kha-hia's innermost council you now betray his trust, or how can reliance be placed upon the word of one so treacherous?"
"The Silent One laughs!" replied Nau-Kaou dispassionately; and drawing his cloak more closely about him he would have composed himself into a reverent attitude to Pass Beyond. "Not so!" cried Ten-teh, rising in his inspired purpose and standing upright despite the fever that possessed him; "the jewel is precious beyond comparison and the casket mean and falling to pieces, but there is none other.
"The deities ordain and the balance weighs; your reward will be the greater," replied Ten-teh. Already he spoke with difficulty, and his eyes were fast closing, but he held himself rigidly, well knowing that his spirit must still obey his will. "Do you not crave now to partake of food and wine?" inquired the Emperor, with tender solicitude.
"It is a moon-to-moon journey," said Ten-teh. "Few travellers have ever reached the valley by that inaccessible track." "More may come before the snow has melted," replied the stranger, with a stress of significance. "Less than seven days ago this person stood upon the northern plains." Ten-teh raised himself upon his arm.
"To the starving the taste of a grain of corn is more satisfying than the thought of a roasted ox, but as many years must pass as this creel now holds fish before the little one can disengage a catch or handle the pole." "It is as the Many-Eyed One sees," replied Ten-teh, with unmoved determination.
At that moment Ten-teh's wife saw that he carried something beyond his creel and discovering the man-child she cried out with delight, pouring forth a torrent of inquiries and striving to possess it. "A tale half told is the father of many lies," exclaimed Ten-teh at length, "and of the greater part of what you ask this person knows neither the beginning nor the end.
When the defective youth had continued for some time in this meaningless strain Ten-teh turned to rebuke him, when to his astonishment he perceived that a strange cormorant was endeavouring to reach them, its progress being impeded by an object which it carried in its mouth.
"Alas, then," exclaimed Ten-teh, "is there, under the most enlightened form of government in the world, no prescribed method of obtaining redress?" "Assuredly," replied the headman; "the prescribed method is the part of the system that has received the most attention.
In the meanwhile Hoang grew from infancy into childhood, taking part with Ten-teh in all his pursuits, yet even in the most menial occupation never wholly shaking off the air of command and nobility of bearing which lay upon him.
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