d crickets to a ferocious fight
within their gilded bamboo cage, while, just at hand, the slaves were
preparing his bow and arrows for his daily archery practice.

Now, among the rulers of China there are three classes of privileged
targets--the skin of the bear for the emperor himself, the skin of the
deer for the princes of the blood, and the skin of the tiger for the
nobles of the court; and thus, side by side, in the Imperial Archery
School at Chang-an, hung the three targets.

The girl with the royal sash and the determined face walked straight up
to the Prince Kaou. The boy left off goading his fighting crickets, and
looked in astonishment at this strange and highly audacious girl, who
dared to enter a place from which all women were excluded. Before the
guards could interfere, she spoke.

"Are the arrows of the great Prince Kaou so well fitted to the cord,"
she said, "that he dares to try his skill with one who, although a girl,
hath yet the wit and right to test his skill?"

The guards laid hands upon the intruder to drag her away, but the
prince, nettled at her tone, yet glad to welcome any thing that promised
novelty or amusement, bade them hold off their hands.

"No girl speaketh thus to the Prince Kaou and liveth," he said
insolently. "Give me instant test of thy boast, or the wooden collar(1)
in the palace torture-house, shall be thy fate."

(1) The "wooden collar" was the "kia" or "cangue,"--a terrible
instrument of torture used in China for the punishment of criminals.

"Give me the arrows, Prince," the girl said, bravely, "and I will make
good my words."

At a sign, the slaves handed her a bow and arrows. But, as she tried the
cord and glanced along the polished shaft, the prince said:

"Yet, stay, girl; here is no target set for thee. Let the slaves set up
the people's target. These are not for such as thou."

"Nay, Prince, fret not thyself," the girl coolly replied. "My target
is here!" and while all looked on in wonder, the undaunted girl
deliberately toed the practice line, twanged her bow, and with a sudden
whiz, sent her well-aimed shaft quivering straight into the small white
centre of the great bearskin--the imperial target itself!

With a cry of horror and of rage at such sacrilege, the guards pounced
upon the girl archer, and would have dragged her away. But with the same
quick motion that had saved her from the Tartar robbers, she sprang
from their grasp and, standing full before