Читать книгу Kai Lung Unrolls His Mat - Bramah Ernest - Страница 10

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In this remarkable manner, two of the most notable characters of any age, Wan the son of Ah-shoo, and Ming Wang (to whose memory posterity has dedicated as a title "The Knowing") at last encountered, for it was to the penurious home of the former person that destiny inclined the Emperor's footsteps. Recognizing the languished fortunes of the one whose roof he sought, the considerate Monarch forebore to stand on ceremony, merely requiring a reclining stool before the charcoal fire.

"Beneficence," exclaimed Wan, falling on his face to the best of his ability as he offered a steaming cup, "admittedly the hearth will warm the muscles of your lordly body, but here is that which will invigorate the cockles of your noble heart."

For a perceptible moment the Imperishable wavered--certainly the balance of the analogy might have been more classically maintained, or possibly he remembered the long succession of food-tasters who had fallen lifeless at his feet--but in that pause the exquisite aroma of the fragrant liquid assailed his auspicious nose. He took the cup and emptied it, returned it to Wan's hand with an appropriate gesture, and continued thus and thus until the latter person had to confess that his store was destitute. Not until then did Ming Wang devote his throat to speech.

"What is this enchanted beverage?" he demanded, "and why has it been withheld from us until now?"

"It is the produce of a sacred tree, high Majesty, and its use but lately revealed to me by special favour of the Powers. Never before, from the legendary days of the First Man until this hour, has it been brewed on earth, and save for the necessary tests, your own distinguished lips are the first to taste it."

"It is certainly miraculous," agreed Ming Wang ecstatically, and unable to contain himself he began to cross and recross the room, to the embarassment of the assembled nobles who were thus also kept in a continual state of flux. "It has a perfection hitherto unknown among the liquids of the world. It cheers yet without any disconcerting effect upon the speech or movements. It warms where one is cold and cools where one is hot. Already every trace of fatigue and despondency has vanished, leaving us inspired for further deeds of public usefulness, eager to accomplish other acts of justice. It stimulates, invigorates, rejuvenates, animates, lubricates--"

"Sublimest of Potentates," pleaded the recorder of his voice, "retard the torrent of your melodious soliloquy! How else shall this clay-fingered menial take down your priceless words which it is his design presently to set to appropriate music?"

"It will be as acceptable at the earliest gong-stroke of the yet unawakened morn, as it will become the inevitable accompaniment to the afternoon rice. Into the inner office of the commercially inclined it will be brought to smooth the progress of each bargain, and in the dim recesses of our departmental activities it will produce harmony and discreet mirth among the abstemious yet sprightly of both sexes. In the chambers of our lesser ones its name is destined to rank as a synonym of all that is confidential and inexact. The weary student, endeavouring to banish sleep; the minor priest, striving to maintain enthusiasm amid an inadequacy of taels; the harassed and ill-requited inscriber of the spoken word--"

"Proceed, O Taproot of Eloquence, proceed!" murmured the one who plied a hurrying brush. "To an accompaniment of drums, horns, and metallic serpents--"

"To cope the final pinnacle, it is an entirely new thing; indeed it is the new thing, and unless our experience of an imitative and docile people is signally astray it will soon become 'the thing.'" It is hardly necessary to insist at this late date how noticeably the prescient Ming Wang's words have been literally fulfilled. Known for many centuries as "the new thing," the popular decoction passed by a natural stage into "the thing," and then, in affectionate abbreviation, to "the." By this appropriate designation it is recognized in every land to which our flowery civilization carries, though doubtless on barbaric tongues the melodious word is bent to many uncouth similarities.

"It now only remains," continued the evenhanded lawgiver, "to reward virtue and to eradicate vice. The former is personified before us--the latter we shall doubtless very soon discover in some form or another. What, O benefactor of mankind, is your upright name?"

"My low-class appellation is Wan, that of my mentally defective father being Ah-shoo, we springing from the lowly house of Lam," replied the other suitably. "The inconspicuous shadow lurking in the background is Lan-yen, whose name entwines with mine."

"Yet how comes it that you, who are evidently under the direct protection of the higher Forces, are in so--as it may be expressed--?" and with commendable tact the humane Emperor merely indicated the threadbare walls and Wan's immemorial garb.

"Formerly, Magnificence, my state was thus and thus, lacking nothing and having slaves to stand before my presence," admitted Wan. "But of late one in authority has oppressed me for no cause, save that the proverb aptly says, 'Should you touch a rat upon the tail be assured that he will turn and bite you,' and in this latter end his malice has prevailed.

"Ah," commented the Enlightened with a meaning nod at each of his suite in turn, to which they duly responded an apt glance of cognizance. "What is this corrupt official's name and the sign of his condition?"

"He is of the crystal button, lord, and his forbidding name is Hin Ching. Furthermore, led on by an insatiable curiosity, he is at this moment standing about this person's crumbling gate, striving to peer through the prickly hedge toward us."

"Let him be brought in at once," was the command, and with no opportunity to prepare an evasive tale Hin Ching was hurried forward.

"Hin Ching," said the Emperor, who had meanwhile taken up an imposing station, "all your duplicity is known to us and no defense will serve you. How comes it that you have so pursued this meritorious youth who has our royal favor?"

"Tolerance," pleaded the terror-stricken culprit, seeing no other course before him, and kow-towing so passionately that his words could scarcely be heard above the steady clashing of his head upon the sonorous floor, "be clement in your strength, for it has long been suspected that this person's heart is touched."

"In that case," decided the Sun of Impartiality, "the marks should certainly be visible so that the innocent may be warned thereby." Then turning to his retinue he continued: "Procure a reasonable abundance of supple bamboo rods, and without disturbing the afflicted Mandarin from the position which he has so conveniently assumed, remove his lower robe."

At this awful presage of the nature of the correction shortly to be laid upon Hin Ching, a shudder went up from the assembled host and even Wan vacillated in his strict resentment.

"Brother of the peacock," he pleaded, "suffer justice this once to drowse. He is a man of middle years and obese beyond his age."

"It has ever been the privilege of the wronged to condone the guilty," replied Ming Wang, "and to that extent your plea must hold. Yet wherein shall Hin Ching's penance lie, in this case being outside the Code of Yao-u and Shun? What, Mandarin, is your strict equivalent?"

"Your entirely humble ranks equal with a district prefect, High Excellence-- equal and above."

"Henceforth you will rank equal and below, thus degrading you appreciably and at the same time enabling you to save a portion of your face. On the unbending line of pure romantic justice all your belongings should divert to Wan, but as this would probably result in your becoming a dangerous criminal, the special requirements will be met by allotting to him half. To prevent any mutual delusion, you will divide all you possess into two equal mounds--and Wan will make his choice."

"May your life span ten thousand ages and your grandsons rule the world!" exclaimed Wan. "It is enough to have seen this day." And even Hin Ching contributed an appropriate, though a shorter, blessing from within his teeth.

"It only remains to define your duties," continued the Ever-thoughtful, addressing himself to Wan. "Your style will be that of 'Protector of the Tree,' and the scroll confirming this will follow in due season. Your chief function will, of course, be that of assuring an unfailing supply of the beverage to your royal Palaces at all times. In your spare moments you can transmit offshoots of the trees to every point of our boundless Empire, so that the seed shall never fail. The office, which will be strictly hereditary, will naturally be quite honorary, what you receive from Hin Ching being sufficient to maintain your state. It will, however, carry with it a salute of three trumpets and the emblem of a steaming cup."

"Majesty," reported an attending slave, entering at this pause, "a relay of swift horses from the Capital awaits your commanding voice without."

The All-accomplishing rose and moved toward the door with the well-satisfied smile of a person who has achieved his worthy end.

"Everything has been set right here," he remarked pleasantly, "and the usual edicts will follow within a moon." Then to his suite: "Come, let us press forward with all haste to scatter the germs of promiscuous justice elsewhere."