he
well-endowed Yin think, for example, that even the most depraved person
would endeavour to gain an advantage over him in the matter of buying or
selling porcelain clay if he fully understood the fact that the one with
whom he was trafficking could unhesitatingly transfix four persons with
one arrow at the distance of a hundred paces? Or to what advantage would
it be that a body of unscrupulous outcasts who owned a field of inferior
clay should surround it with drawn swords by day and night, endeavouring
meanwhile to dispose of it as material of the finest quality, if the one
whom they endeavoured to ensnare in this manner possessed the power of
being able to pass through their ranks unseen and examine the clay at
his leisure?"

"In the cases to which reference has been made, the possession of those
qualities would undoubtedly be of considerable use," admitted Yin; yet,
in spite of his entire ignorance of commercial matters, this one has a
confident feeling that it would be more profitable to avoid such very
doubtful forms of barter altogether rather than spend eight years
in acquiring the arts by which to defeat them. "That, however, is a
question which concerns this person's virtuous and engaging father more
than his unworthy self, and his only regret is that no opportunity has
offered by which he might prove that he has applied himself diligently
to your instruction and example, O amiable Quang."

It had long been a regret to Quang also that no incident of a disturbing
nature had arisen whereby Yin could have shown himself proficient in the
methods of defence and attack which he had taught him. This deficiency
he had endeavoured to overcome, as far as possible, by constructing
life-like models of all the most powerful and ferocious types of
warriors and the fiercest and most relentless animals of the forest,
so that Yin might become familiar with their appearance and discover in
what manner each could be the most expeditiously engaged.

"Nevertheless," remarked Quang, on an occasion when Yin appeared to be
covered with honourable pride at having approached an unusually large
and repulsive-looking tiger so stealthily that had the animal been
really alive it would certainly have failed to perceive him, "such
accomplishments are by no means to be regarded as conclusive in
themselves. To steal insidiously upon a destructively-included wild
beast and transfix it with one well-directed blow of a spear is attended
by d