and the issues of Shan Tien, Ming-shu and we who
linger here will presently be brought to a very decisive point where
each must play a clear-cut part. To that end is your purpose firm?"

"Lay your commands," replied Hwa-mei steadfastly, "and measure not the
burden of their weight."

"It is well," agreed Kai Lung. "Let Shan Tien give the feast and the
time of acquiescence will have passed. . . . The foothold of to-morrow
looms insecure, yet a very pressing message must meanwhile reach your
hands."

"At the feast?"

"Thus: about the door of the inner hall are two great jars of shining
brass, one on either side, and at their approach a step. Being led, at
that step I shall stumble. . . . the message you will thereafter find
in the jar from which I seek support."

"It shall be to me as your spoken word. Alas! the moment of recall is
already here."

"Doubt not; we stand on the edge of an era that is immeasurable. For
that emergency I now go to consult the spirits who have so far guided
us."

On the following day at an evening hour Kai Lung received an imperious
summons to accompany one who led him to the inner courts. Yet neither
the cords about his arms nor the pillory around his neck could contain
the gladness of his heart. From within came the sounds of instruments
of wood and string with the measured beating of a drum; nothing had
fallen short, for on that forbidden day, incredibly blind to the
depths of his impiety, the ill-starred Mandarin Shan Tien was having
music!

"Gall of a misprocured she-mule!" exclaimed the unsympathetic voice of
the one who had charge of him, and the rope was jerked to quicken his
loitering feet. In an effort to comply Kai Lung missed the step that
crossed his path and stumbling blindly forward would have fallen had
he not struck heavily against a massive jar of lacquered brass, one of
two that flanked the door.

"Thy province is to tell a tale rather than to dance a grotesque, as I
understand the matter," said the attendant, mollified by the
amusement. "In any case, restrain thy admitted ardour for a while;
the call is not yet for us."

From a group that stood apart some distance from the door one moved
forth and leisurely crossed the hall. Kai Lung's wounded head ceased
to pain him.

"What slave is this," she demanded of the other in a slow and level
tone, "and wherefore do the two of you intrude on this occasion?"

"The exalted lord commands that this one of the prisoners