The Wallet of Kai Lung | Page 4

a word from the chief, the unfortunate Kai Lung
found his hands seized and tied behind his back, while a second later a
rough hemp rope was fixed round his neck, and the other end tied to an
overhanging tree.
Lin Yi smiled pleasantly and critically upon these preparations, and
when they were complete dismissed his follower.
"Now we can converse at our ease and without restraint," he remarked
to Kai Lung. "It will be a distinguished privilege for a person
occupying the important public position which you undoubtedly do; for
myself, my instincts are so degraded and low-minded that nothing

gives me more gratification than to dispense with ceremony."
To this Kai Lung made no reply, chiefly because at that moment the
wind swayed the tree, and compelled him to stand on his toes in order
to escape suffocation.
"It would be useless to try to conceal from a person of your inspired
intelligence that I am indeed Lin Yi," continued the robber. "It is a
dignified position to occupy, and one for which I am quite incompetent.
In the sixth month of the third year ago, it chanced that this unworthy
person, at that time engaged in commercial affairs at Knei Yang,
became inextricably immersed in the insidious delights of
quail-fighting. Having been entrusted with a large number of taels with
which to purchase elephants' teeth, it suddenly occurred to him that if
he doubled the number of taels by staking them upon an exceedingly
powerful and agile quail, he would be able to purchase twice the
number of teeth, and so benefit his patron to a large extent. This matter
was clearly forced upon his notice by a dream, in which he perceived
one whom he then understood to be the benevolent spirit of an ancestor
in the act of stroking a particular quail, upon whose chances he
accordingly placed all he possessed. Doubtless evil spirits had been
employed in the matter; for, to this person's great astonishment, the
quail in question failed in a very discreditable manner at the encounter.
Unfortunately, this person had risked not only the money which had
been entrusted to him, but all that he had himself become possessed of
by some years of honourable toil and assiduous courtesy as a
professional witness in law cases. Not doubting that his patron would
see that he was himself greatly to blame in confiding so large a sum of
money to a comparatively young man of whom he knew little, this
person placed the matter before him, at the same time showing him that
he would suffer in the eyes of the virtuous if he did not restore this
person's savings, which but for the presence of the larger sum, and a
generous desire to benefit his patron, he would never have risked in so
uncertain a venture as that of quail-fighting. Although the facts were
laid in the form of a dignified request instead of a demand by legal
means, and the reasoning carefully drawn up in columns of fine
parchment by a very illustrious writer, the reply which this person

received showed him plainly that a wrong view had been taken of the
matter, and that the time had arrived when it became necessary for him
to make a suitable rejoinder by leaving the city without delay."
"It was a high-minded and disinterested course to take," said Kai Lung
with great conviction, as Lin Yi paused. "Without doubt evil will
shortly overtake the avaricious-souled person at Knei Yang."
"It has already done so," replied Lin Yi. "While passing through this
forest in the season of Many White Vapours, the spirits of his bad
deeds appeared to him in misleading and symmetrical shapes, and drew
him out of the path and away from his bowmen. After suffering many
torments, he found his way here, where, in spite of our continual care,
he perished miserably and in great bodily pain. . . . But I cannot conceal
from myself, in spite of your distinguished politeness, that I am
becoming intolerably tiresome with my commonplace talk."
"On the contrary," replied Kai Lung, "while listening to your voice I
seemed to hear the beating of many gongs of the finest and most
polished brass. I floated in the Middle Air, and for the time I even
became unconscious of the fact that this honourable appendage, though
fashioned, as I perceive, out of the most delicate silk, makes it
exceedingly difficult for me to breathe."
"Such a thing cannot be permitted," exclaimed Lin Yi, with some
indignation, as with his own hands he slackened the rope and, taking it
from Kai Lung's neck, fastened it around his ankle. "Now, in return for
my uninviting confidences, shall not my senses be gladdened by a
recital of the titles and honours