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  “May we suggest that it would be a most desirable termination of an unfortunate misunderstanding if all of you would partake of some refreshment with us and indulge in instructive discourse to our possibly mutual advantage?”

  Wu winced, considering the probable expense, and put on an expression of horror, in which there was no welcome. He glowered, but said nothing.

  The boy had been rejoined by the dancing girl, who had slipped in unobtrusively by the back door, and both nodded violently at their master to accept the offer before it could be withdrawn.

  Shan Cho demurred. ‘To our abiding distress, we have not as yet been fortunate enough to have gathered a complete string of cash between us and it is without question that no form of dignified credit is observed in this antique establishment.“

  Gwalchmai gestured largely at the foundry-master.

  “Have absolutely no thought for the trifling amount concerned in establishing a comfortable feeling of repletion. Be assured that my friend is well equipped and anxious to bear the insignificant diminution of his overflowing purse. He is an individual of such ample means and extrordinary benevolence that his ancestors would be grieved for seven preceding generations should you refuse to partake of his notable generosity. He is already the sole support, ”by the burning of funeral money, of a large aggregation of hungry and homeless ghosts. Is it not so, charitable Wu?“

  “Anything that is phrased in such‘ shining words of pearl should be beyond any form of dispute,” agreed Wu, without manifest enthusiasm.

  His sober and considering looks grew momentarily more severe as the guests avidly absorbed a double order of noodles apiece. When the gallon of tea vanished, he considered the empty bowls with sadness, but it was not until a large pitcher of rice wine was found insufficient and a second was brought that remorse for the events of the day so obviously overwhelmed him.

  He arose hastily. “Worthy Councilor, it is necessary that our further discussion must be carried forward until a more opportune occasion. This person has been so consistently cursed by the employment of incompetent thumb-fingered dolts that he must instantly return to then: encouragement in their duties. If the godown has not yet been destroyed by then- misguided efforts, doubtless sloth has overcome them and only the application of something weighty to their insensitive heads will convince them that they should strive to be worthy, in some part, of their lavish remuneration.”

  So saying, he was leaving in such haste that he would have completely forgotten to settle the score had not three of the virtuous maidens, who it appeared were not unfamiliar with such sudden fits of absentmindedness upon the part of their customers, casually intercepted him in such a manner that he could not leave until he had disgorged the proper number of coins.

  Heaving a deep sigh, he departed, leaving the others to finish the remainder of the rice wine at their leisure.

  As the dancing girl continued to direct even more swooning and personal glances at Gwalchmai, the more often she emptied her cup, he could not fail to notice that her beauty was becoming more evident each time his own elbow bent. He shrewdly decided that this remarkable coincidence could lead to nothing but future regret and weak and unconvincing explanations when he should finally meet Corenice again.

  Therefore, ,he confined his remarks strictly to the magician and was much relieved when she flounced out in a pet, followed soon afterward by the well-rounded boy, who belched happily as he walked.

  Left thus to their own devices, Gwalchmai and Shan Cho came obliquely and by devious routes to a thorough and complete respect for each other’s capabilities and in the course of the conversation -the subject of the Wands of Yai Ching was accidently brought up.

  Gwalchmai had never heard of either the Book of Rites, or the mystical Changes of Wen Wang, but he did know that there were magics, and a wizardry of Oriental derivation, not akin to either European or Azflanian lore. He asked for an explanation.

  Shan Cho brought out a bamboo cylinder from the bosom of his robes. He uncapped it and shook out six black painted bamboo strips. Each was marked on one side with a band of white, but the markings were in different places on each little wand. He stood them on end and opened his hand. The cluster opened out and fell upon the table, some with the round side up, which had no white band. He pushed them together and the lines formed a pattern —one of the sixty-four hexagrams listed in the Book of Changes.

  “This is the Li Chi, an unfortunate sign,” he said. “It might bring the seeker unwanted knowledge, but if it should be used by this person, he would not look at the symbol you see, excluding all other distracting sounds or thoughts.

  “When the hexagram was firmly engraved upon his mind, he would close his eyes and picture a door before them, upon which he would plainly see the symbol clearly im- i printed. This door has never a knob or latch, nor any lock.

  “It cannot be opened, but if a person concentrates upon his desire strongly and wishes hard enough, the door will swing widely toward him. Then he must believe that he arises without hesitation and walks straight through the doorway. Upon the other side one receives the answer to his questions and a resolving of his problems.

  “However, I must tell you honestly that this seeker would never use this sign of the Li Chi. It has been known to occur that the door does not open, or that the wanderer does not always return.

  “Some questions are best not answered and some problems can be solved only by death.”

  “I have a problem,” said Gwalchmai, excitedly, omitting the customary amenities of polite speech. “Let me try the wands.”

  Shan Cho hesitated. “Be advised of the danger, Pure-Minded Adviser to the Mighty, upon whom be praise. This action may be a matter for regret.”

  Gwalchmai held out his hand. Seeing his unshakable determination, the magician reluctantly gave him the painted strips. He bunched them together and let them fall. Four dropped face down; the other two showed markings, but were separated by the blank strips that lay between when the six were pushed together in parallel formation.

  Shan Cho’s face showed his relief. “Ah! This is much better. The third of the Five Changes. A most fortunate sign. It should bring good fortune, a sight of a distant friend, or an answer to an important question.”

  Gwalchmai shielded ids eyes with his hands, and fixed his mind upon the hexagram. The sounds of the room fell“ away, the face of the man opposite him disappeared; the hard bench beneath him could not be felt.

  The symbol became more vivid as he stared at it without blinking. The lines wavered with his breathing, then steadied, growing brighter—they flamed as though white-hot He closed his burning eyes against their brilliance, then saw the door take shape before him, as with an inner sight

  He stared at it. It was a heavy door, wide enough for only a single person, but it was set within a monstrous gate meant for mounted men or wagons. The whole was framed by a high stone wall on either side, extending far into misty distance beyond his vision.

  He did not dare look at the walls, except out of the corners of his eyes, lest he break the spell. He looked straight ahead as he had been told.

  The outlines of the door hardened. He could see the adze marks that had shaped its planks. Against its gray plainness flamed the sign. Without warning, the door swung toward him, wide and wider, disclosing across a few feet another door already open, through which a cloud of rolling mist could be seen eddying in his direction.

  He thought that he got up without hesitation and passed through the door of the hexagram. He could see no more than if he were in dense fog, but it was warm and flower-fragrant, and it lay about him like a blessing. He felt happy without reasoning why.

  People seemed very close hi the obscurity. He fumbled on a few steps more, feeling for something solid with his hands.

  Suddenly .out of the mist a bearded face came against his cheek, long robes rustled against his own and strong arms clasped him.

  He knew who it was at once. Merlin! Was he then admitted to the
Land of the Dead?

  No word was spoken. Gwalchmai felt that the tenuous connection with his own world might part like a cobweb. The arms released him. His godfather was gone.

  Now there came another clasping—more tender, though tighter, as though from this affectionate hug he would not be freed. He tried to place his own arms around that well-known and beloved form. He knew instantly who it must be.

  “Corenice!” he whispered.

  In that instant of knowing, everything passed. The doors vanished, the gate and wall were gone, the mists rolled away. Only the evanescent loving touch of a precious kiss upon his cheek remained—that and a memory.

  In that tiny fraction of a second when the mist had dissipated, he had seen a vision, distinct, clear, not to be forgotten.

  A delicately featured girl, dressed like a princess, in silks and jewels, with tiny slippered feet, a child-like form, and slim pearl-adorned fingers. It was she who had caressed him. Only once had he seen her like. She was golden hi skin and golden embroidery was heavy upon her silken robe. She was the most beautiful girl he had ever stood before.

  The flush upon her cheeks was like the soft dust upon a just-opened peach blossom. Her hair was black and glossy. She wore the same smiling expectant and inviting expression that Thyra had shown him and which he had seen upon the face of the dark Welsh girl who had named herself Nikky to him before they were truly wedded in the enclosure of the vitrified fort in Britain.

  He knew beyond doubt that she could be no other than his lost love and that somehow they would soon meet, for in that flick of time in which he opened his eyes and saw opposite him the grinning features of Shan Cho, he saw superimposed upon the magician’s face the scene still visible to his mind’s eye that he had seen over the girl’s shoulder.

  Through the second door, a courtyard, another wall, and beyond it the distant but familiar outlines of the rolling hills and perfect snowy peaks among which he and Corenice had strolled so pleasantly together—in the Land of Dream!

  17

  The Jiredrakes

  Gwalchmai had been amused by the abrupt departure of the foundry-master. However, he did not overlook the possibilities in the demonstration he had just seen. He considered them soberly during the afternoon and lost some sleep that night while pondering uses of Wu’s invention.

  Merlin’s books had mentioned such an explosive powder. He was aware that his godfather used such compounds in his magic. Other readings had informed hüfi since that fireworks had been displayed for Roman Emperors, and that Anthemius of Tralles, the architect who had drawn the plans for Saint Sophia’s church in Byzantium, had demonstrated likewise before Emperor Justinian.

  Here in Cathay, he saw, almost daily, the little paper noisemakers snapping viciously in the streets of Cambaluc, to drive away devils or to amuse the children. He knew that Kublai had massive stone mortars set at strategic points about the city. These commanded the highways, because they could hurl weighty stone balls a far distance, with an alarming noise.

  Gwalchmai felt certain that mortars were much too heavy to be useful aboard junks and too-ponderous to be transported ashore readily in any rapid land assault of the planned invasion of Nihon.

  Whether this earth “thunder powder had been invented independently by Anthemius of Tralles, or if some wandering Cathayan had brought knowledge of it westward, Gwalchmai had jno way of knowing. He did not feel much curiosity about it—but these bronze tubes of Wu! Here was a marvelous thing!

  If these tubes, in assorted“ sizes, were to be mounted upon the bulwarks, rails, and decks of the Khan’s fleet, no force the dog-devils might bring against them could stand for a moment against such fire-power. If a little one could tear a large hole in the wall of a godown, what might not its large brother or cousin do to the wooden sides of a ship?

  If small ones were mounted upon wheels of a cart and made thus in fit numbers to accompany the Khan’s horde of a hundred thousand warriors, land resistance also might easily be brushed aside.

  The man who could bring such a treasure to the Khan as an easy victory might surely ask any wish and have it granted.

  He pushed far back in his mind the nagging fact that Kublai, the Magnificent—scholar, patron of the arts, warrior, and enlightened monarch that he was—was still far from being the Prester John whom Gwalchmai had come so far to seek. Although all religions and faiths flourished unhampered in his realm, even Christianity as the Nestorians practiced it, Kublai Khan was not a Christian monarch nor ever apt to be.

  Merlin had specified that, failing a Roman emperor, only a Christian monarch should ever be advised of the existence of the new continents.

  This adjuration Gwalchmai, for the moment, now ignored.

  The Khan had a fleet capable of a long sea voyage. If, after this conquest, he could ask what he wished, it would be for a few of those ships, with men and supplies, to first find Corenice again and then, with her, to sail back to his old home.

  He sent word to Shan Cho to attend him at the foundry, for he planned to use the knowledge stored in the devious mind of the magician. When he sought out Wu, he found that both were waiting.

  Shan Cho was listening attentively to the foundry-master recounting his woes. Their faces lit up and became animated at the sight of Gwalchmai, who that day had arrived by palanquin and was splendidly attired in his official robes. They were obviously impressed.

  Gwalchmai noticed that one of the larger cannon had been set up on end in a small alcove and joss sticks were burning before it. He was interested and inquired the reason.

  Wu bowed. “This day, Worthy Councilman, whose calm brow brings peace to troubled hearts, is the anniversary of the absentmindedness of this person’s estimable, but careless, paternal ancestor Feng, but one generation removed. While musing upon lofty thoughts beyond the reach of common mortals, he failed to notice the direction in which his independent feet were carrying his aged body and nodding head. He unfortunately tripped and fell into a cauldron of molten bronze at the very moment of pouring.

  “Although what remained of his body was placed in our family tomb, his essence is here perpetuated in the shape of yonder thunder-tube. Therefore we do him honor in this manner!”

  Gwalchmai made a respectful bow in the direction of the bronze-embalmed Feng and lit three sticks to his imperishable fame. Then, after tea had been brought and the amenities observed, he advanced the thoughts pressing upon his mind.

  “It is the belief of this unimportant adviser to his Sublime Excellence—may he know ten thousand years—that should the worthy Feng request a public audience with the Serenest One, speaking of course through the well-shaped lips of his talented son, who will set forth his elucidations concerning his unparalleled inventions through the rough-edged but gilded words of a moderately placed intermediary, an in-teresting demonstration of yonder thunder-tubes might take place.”

  “These elegant phrases are arranged with superior” conciseness,“ Wu acknowledged. ”However, the interior meaning of them flutters only faintly at the mere border of the consciousness of this narrow-witted individual. Many taels have already been deposited in the grasping palms of thieves in high places to attain such a result.

  “No more uproar has followed than as though the coins had fallen upori a soft down pillow, when the expected sound should have drowned out the noise of a score of crashing gongs. It is a lamentable fact that no more taels are now available for that purpose—all others having been invested in bronze and the metal molded into thunder-tubes.”

  Gwalchmai looked wounded. He clutched his heart as though suffering severe pangs.

  “It was not the ill-expressed fancy of this clumsy word-smith that any expense should even slightly drain the treasure chest of the well-established House of Feng. Rather, as was suggested yesterday, it may befall that some flow of gold from the weighty sacks of His Benign Omnipotence might flow in our directions with the mellow sound of a quarreling brook when the snows melt in the mountains.

 
“If such should be the case, this person would indubitably forego his share of cash in order to enhance his reputation and enjoy the opportunity of •beseeching an inexpensive boon from the All-Seeing One. Naturally, an extra portion of plump, newly minted coins would fall thus into the hands of esteemed friends, who are being addressed at this very moment.”

  Both the foundry-master and Shan Cho gave him their instant and undivided attention.

  Seeing this, Gwalchmai went on: “It is a custom of merit, even between people in high places and such as we who grovel beneath their unsullied slippers, that if we should do them a favor they will not withhold their patronage from us. The only regrettable fact is that the ragged mendicant must first render himself indispensable to the well-equipped noble.

  “We all have certain needs that may possibly be Joined together to create a complete and satisfactory whole, in-” side of which circle of perfection may be found the happy answer to several problems.

  ‘The Ineffable Luminescence—may he soon shed his light upon the ignoble dog-devils!—has need of mighty weapons. You, worthy Wu, have them to the power of ten thousand chariots, but cannot approach His Supreme Brilliance.

  “He has many taels and you have few, while Shan Cho finds that the brilliance of his many-faceted mind is stultified by the stunted intelligence of those coarse individuals with which, for lack of a discerning patron, he is forced to consort.

  “There are ships in the harbors, which this person could use to reach a new continent to the East, but alas!—not even a small, leaky sampan is under his control, although the ear of His Permanent Benignance is weE bent in this direction.

  “Now, it is no secret that however refined an invention may be, improvements are always possible. With your experienced aid in searching out the various salts of the earth that shall be needed, your knowledge of books of your country’s physicks, and your procurement of such rare ingredients for us, accomplished and cunning trickster Shan Cho, our task should be made easy.