Page:Ernest Bramah - Kai Lungs Golden Hours.djvu/308

 lowest orders and the bones of wild animals which had died in the forest. To carry a little rice openly was a rash challenge in those who still valued life, and a loaf of chaff and black mould was guarded as a precious jewel. No wife or daughter could weigh in the balance against a measure of corn, and men sold themselves into captivity to secure the coarse nourishment which the rich allotted to their slaves. Those who remained in the villages followed in Ten-teh's footsteps, so that the meagre harvest that hitherto had failed to supply one household now constituted the sole provision for many. At length these persons, seeing a lingering but inevitable death before them all, came together and spoke of how this might perchance be avoided.

"Let us consider well," said one of their number, "for it may be that succour would not be withheld did we but know the precise manner in which to invoke it."

"Your words are light, O Tan-yung, and your eyes too bright in looking at things which present no encouragement whatever," replied another. "We who remain are old, infirm, or in some way deficient, or we would ere this have sold ourselves into slavery or left this accursed desert in search of a more prolific land. Therefore our existence is of no value to the State, so that they will not take any pains to preserve it. Furthermore, now being beyond the grasp of the most covetous extortion, the district officials have no reason for maintaining an interest in our lives. Assuredly there is no escape except by the White Door of which each one himself holds the key."

"Yet," objected a third, "the aged Ning has often recounted how in the latter years of the reign of the