had the appearance of being a very aged man, for his hair
was white and scanty, his face deep with shadows and lined like a
river bank when the waters have receded, and as he advanced, bent down
with infirmity, he mumbled certain words in ceaseless repetition. From
his feet and garment there fell a sprinkling of sand as he moved, and
blood dropped to the floor from many an unhealed wound, but his eyes
were very bright, and though sword-handles were grasped on all sides
at the sight of so presumptuous an intrusion, yet none opposed him.
Rather, they fell back, leaving an open passage to the foot of the
throne; so that when the Emperor lifted his eyes he saw the aged man
moving slowly forward to do obeisance.

"Ten-teh, revered father!" exclaimed Kwo Kam, and without pausing a
moment he leapt down from off his throne, thrust aside those who stood
about him and casting his own outer robe of state about Ten-teh's
shoulders embraced him affectionately.

"Supreme ruler," murmured Ten-teh, speaking for the Emperor's ear
alone, and in such a tone of voice as of one who has taught himself a
lesson which remains after all other consciousness has passed away,
"an army swiftly to the north! Let them dispose themselves about the
eleven villages and, overlooking the invaders as they assemble, strike
when they are sufficiently numerous for the victory to be lasting and
decisive. The passage of the Ram's Horn has been found and the
malignant Fuh-chi, banded in an unnatural alliance with the barbarian
Kins, lies with itching feet beyond the Kang-lings. The invasion
threatening on the west is but a snare; let a single camp, feigning to
be a multitudinous legion, be thrown against it. Suffer delay from no
cause. Weigh no alternative. He who speaks is Ten-teh, at whose
assuring word the youth Hoang was wont to cast himself into the
deepest waters fearlessly. His eyes are no less clear to-day, but his
heart is made small with overwhelming deference or in unshrinking
loyalty he would cry: 'Hear and obey! All, all--Flags, Ironcaps,
Tigers, Braves--all to the Seng valley, leaving behind them the
swallow in their march and moving with the guile and secrecy of the
ringed tree-snake.'" With these words Ten-teh's endurance passed its
drawn-out limit and again repeating in a clear and decisive voice,
"All, all to the north!" he released his joints and would have fallen
to the ground had it not been for the Emperor's restraining arms.

When Ten-