of Gathering-in?" demanded the Mandarin in
an ominous tone.

"On such and such a day, benevolence, threescore and fifteen years
ago, the imperishable founder of the existing dynasty ascended on a
fiery dragon to be a guest on high," confessed the conscience-stricken
scribe, after consulting his printed tablets. "Owing to the stress of
a sudden journey significance of the date had previously escaped my
weed-grown memory, tolerance."

"Alas!" exclaimed Shan Tien bitterly, "among the innumerable drawbacks
of an exacting position the enforced reliance upon an unusually inept
and more than ordinarily self-opinionated inscriber of the spoken word
is perhaps the most illimitable. Owing to your profuse incompetence
that which began as an agreeable prelude to a busy day has turned into
a really serious matter."

"Yet, lenience," pleaded the hapless Ming-shu, lowering his voice for
the Mandarin's private ear, "so far the danger resides in this one
throat alone. That disposed of--"

"Perchance," replied Shan Tien; then turning to Kai Lung: "Doubtless,
O story-teller, you were so overcome by the burden of your guilt that
until this moment you have hidden the knowledge of it deep within your
heart?"

"Magnificence, the commanding quality of your enduring voice would
draw the inner matter from a marrow-bone," frankly replied Kai Lung.
"Fearful lest this crime might go unconfessed and my weak and
trembling ghost therefrom be held to bear its weight unto the end of
time, I set out the full happening in a written scroll and sent it at
daybreak by a sure and secret hand to a scrupulous official to deal
with as he sees fit."

"Your worthy confidant would assuredly be a person of incorruptible
integrity?"

"The repute of the upright Censor K'o-yih had reached even these
stunted ears."

"Inevitably: the Censor K'o-yih!" Shan Tien's hasty glance took in the
angle of the sun and for a moment rested on the door leading to the
part where his swiftest horses lay. "By this time the message will
have reached him?"

"Omnipotence," replied Kai Lung, spreading out his hands to indicate
the full extent of his submission, "not even a piece of the finest
Ping-hi silk could be inserted between the deepest secret of this
person's heart and your all-extracting gaze. Should you, in your
meritorious sense of justice, impose upon me a punishment that would
seem to be adequate, it would be superfluous to trouble the obliging
Censor in the matter.