, until those who
had hitherto found it a desperate chance to live from day to day now
abandoned the unequal struggle for the more attractive certainty of a
swift and painless death. One by one the fires went out in the houses
of the dead; the ever-increasing snow broke down the walls. Wild
beasts from the mountains walked openly about the deserted streets,
thrust themselves through such doors as were closed against them and
lurked by night in the most sacred recesses of the ruined temples. The
strong and the wealthy had long since fled, and presently out of all
the eleven villages of the valley but one man remained alive and
Ten-teh lay upon the floor of his inner chamber, dying.

"There was a sign--there was a sign in the past that more was yet to
be accomplished," ran the one thought of his mind as he lay there
helpless, his last grain consumed and the ashes on his hearthstone
black. "Can it be that so solemn an omen has fallen unfulfilled to the
ground; or has this person long walked hand in hand with shadows in
the Middle Air?"

"Dwellers of Yin; dwellers of Chung-yo; of Wei, Shan-ta, Feng, the
Rock of the Bleak Pagoda and all the eleven villages of the valley!"
cried a voice from without. "Ho, inhospitable sleeping ones, I have
reached the last dwelling of the plain and no one has as yet bidden me
enter, no voice invited me to unlace my sandals and partake of tea. Do
they fear that this person is a robber in disguise, or is this the
courtesy of the Upper Seng valley?"

"They sleep more deeply," said Ten-teh, speaking back to the full
extent of his failing power; "perchance your voice was not raised high
enough, O estimable wayfarer. Nevertheless, whether you come in peace
or armed with violence, enter here, for the one who lies within is
past help and beyond injury."

Upon this invitation the stranger entered and stood before Ten-teh. He
was of a fierce and martial aspect, carrying a sword at his belt and a
bow and arrows slung across his back, but privation had set a deep
mark upon his features and his body bore unmistakable traces of a long
and arduous march. His garments were ragged, his limbs torn by rocks
and thorny undergrowth, while his ears had fallen away before the
rigour of the ice-laden blasts. In his right hand he carried a staff
upon which he leaned at every step, and glancing to the ground Ten-teh
perceived that the lower part of his sandals were worn away so that he
trod painfully upon his bru