Page:Ernest Bramah - Kai Lungs Golden Hours.djvu/214

 hidden tricklage that occasion always finds Kai Lung so adequately prepared?"

"It is, as the story of Chang Tao has this day justified, and as this discriminating person has frequently maintained, that the one in question has a story prepared to meet the requirement of every circumstance," declared Shan Tien.

"Or that each requirement is subtly shaped to meet his preparation," retorted Ming-shu darkly. "Be that as it shall perchance ultimately appear, it is undeniable that your admitted weaknesses"

"Weaknesses!" exclaimed the astonished Mandarin, looking around the room as though to discover in what crevice the unheard-of attributes were hidden. "This person's weaknesses? Can the sounding properties of this ill-constructed roof thus pervert one word into the semblance of another? If not, the bounds set to the admissible from the taker-down of the spoken word, Ming-shu, do not in their most elastic moods extend to calumny and distortion.… The one before you has no weaknesses.… Doubtless before another moon has changed you will impute to him actual faults!"

"Humility directs my gaze," replied Ming-shu, with downcast eyes, as he plainly recognised that his presumption had been too maintained. "Yet," he added, with polished irony, "there is a well-timed adage that rises to the lips: 'Do not despair; even Yuen Yan once cast a missile at the Tablets!' " "Truly," agreed Shan Tien, with smooth agreement, "the line is not unknown to me. Who, however, was the one in question and under what provocation did he so behave?"