ilma has been at rest these many
years, I wish that I might go back to the year 1927, and take up my old
life where I left it off, in the abandoned mine near Scranton.

And at the period of which I speak, I was less attuned than now to the
modern world. Real as my life was, and my love for my wife, there was
much about it all that was like a dream, and in the midst of my tortures
by the Hans, this complex--this habit of many months--helped me to tell
myself that this, too, was all a dream, that I must not succumb, for I
would wake up in a moment.

And so they failed.

More than that, I think I won something nearer to genuine respect from
those around me than any other Hans of that generation accorded to
anybody.

Among these was San-Lan himself, the ruler. In the end it was he who
ordered the cessation of these tortures, and quite frankly admitted to
me his conviction that they had been futile and that I was in many
senses a super-man. Instead of having me executed, he continued to
shower luxuries and attentions on me, and frequently commanded my
attendance upon him.

Another was his favorite concubine, Ngo-Lan, a creature of the most
alluring beauty; young, graceful and most delicately seductive, whose
skill in the arts and sciences put many of their doctors to shame. This
creature, his most prized possession, San-Lan with the utmost moral
callousness ordered to seduce me, urging her to apply without stint and
to its fullest extent, her knowledge of evil arts. Had I not seen the
naked horror of her soul, that she let creep into her eyes for just one
unguarded instant, and had it not been for my conviction of Wilma's
faith in me, I do not know what--but suffice it to say that I resisted
this assault also.

Had San-Lan only known it, he might have had a better chance of breaking
down my resistance through another bit of femininity in his household,
the little nine-year-old Princess Lu-Yan, his daughter.

* * * * *

I think San-Lan held something of real affection for this sprightly
little mite, who in spite of the sickening knowledge of rottenness she
had already acquired at this early age, was the nearest thing to
innocence I found in Lo-Tan. But he did not realize this, and could not;
for even the most natural and fundamental affection of the human race,
that of parents for their offspring, had been so degraded and suppressed
in this vicious Han civilization as to be unrecogniza