Kai Lungs Golden Hours | Page 9

widest river.
The palace of the sublime Emperor is made rich with hanging curtains.
While here rough stone walls forbid repose. Yet there is one who
unhesitatingly prefers the latter; For from an open shutter here he can
look forth, And perchance catch a glimpse of one who may pass by.
The occupation of the Imperial viceroy is both lucrative and noble;
While that of a relater of imagined tales is by no means esteemed. But
he who thus expressed himself would not exchange with the other; For
around the identity of each heroine he can entwine the personality of
one whom he has encountered. And thus she is ever by his side."
"Your uplifted voice comes from an unexpected quarter, minstrel," said
a melodious voice, and the maiden whom he had encountered in the
wood stood before him. "What crime have you now committed?"
"An ancient one. I presumed to raise my unworthy eyes--"
"Alas, story-teller," interposed the maiden hastily, "it would seem that
the star to which you chained /your/ wrist has not carried you into the
assembly of the gods."
"Yet already it has borne me half-way--into a company of malefactors.
Doubtless on the morrow the obliging Mandarin Shan Tien will arrange
for the journey to be complete."
"Yet have you then no further wish to continue in an ordinary
existence?" asked the maiden.
"To this person," replied Kai Lung, with a deep-seated look, "existence

can never again be ordinary. Admittedly it may be short."
As they conversed together in this inoffensive manner she whom Li-loe
had called the Golden Mouse held in her delicately-formed hands a
priceless bowl filled with ripe fruit of the rarer kinds which she had
gathered. These from time to time she threw up to the opening, rightly
deciding that one in Kai Lung's position would stand in need of
sustenance, and he no less dexterously held and retained them. When
the bowl was empty she continued for a space to regard it silently, as
though exploring the many-sided recesses of her mind.
"You have claimed to be a story-teller and have indeed made a boast
that there is no arising emergency for which you are unprepared," she
said at length. "It now befalls that you may be put to a speedy test. Is
the nature of this imagined scene"--thus she indicated the
embellishment of the bowl--"familiar to your eyes?"
"It is that known as 'The Willow,'" replied Kai Lung. "There is a
story--"
"There is a story!" exclaimed the maiden, loosening from her brow the
overhanging look of care. "Thus and thus. Frequently have I
importuned him before whom you will appear to explain to me the
meaning of the scene. When you are called upon to plead your cause,
see to it well that your knowledge of such a tale is clearly shown. He
before whom you kneel, craftily plied meanwhile by my unceasing
petulance, will then desire to hear it from your lips . . . At the striking
of the fourth gong the day is done. What lies between rests with your
discriminating wit."
"You are deep in the subtler kinds of wisdom, such as the weak
possess," confessed Kai Lung. "Yet how will this avail to any length?"
"That which is put off from to-day is put off from to-morrow," was the
confident reply. "For the rest--at a corresponding gong-stroke of each
day it is this person's custom to gather fruit. Farewell, minstrel."
When Li-loe returned a little later Kai Lung threw his two remaining

strings of cash about that rapacious person's neck and embraced him as
he exclaimed:
"Chieftain among doorkeepers, when I go to the Capital to receive the
all-coveted title 'Leaf-crowned' and to chant ceremonial odes before the
Court, thou shalt accompany me as forerunner, and an agile tribe of
selected goats shall sport about thy path."
"Alas, manlet," replied the other, weeping readily, "greatly do I fear
that the next journey thou wilt take will be in an upward or a downward
rather than a sideway direction. This much have I learned, and to this
end, at some cost admittedly, I enticed into loquacity one who knows
another whose brother holds the key of Ming-shu's confidence: that
to-morrow the Mandarin will begin to distribute justice here, and out of
the depths of Ming-shu's malignity the name of Kai Lung is the first set
down."
"With the title," continued Kai Lung cheerfully, "there goes a
sufficiency of taels; also a vat of a potent wine of a certain kind."
"If," suggested Li-loe, looking anxiously around, "you have really
discovered hidden about this place a secret store of wine, consider well
whether it would not be prudent to entrust it to a faithful friend before it
is too late."
It was indeed as Li-loe had foretold. On