Page:Ernest Bramah - Kai Lungs Golden Hours.djvu/315

 be denuded, and all who are available will march out to meet them. They will be but as an empty shell designed to serve a crafty purpose, for in the meanwhile Kha-hia will creep unsuspected through the Kang-lings by the Ram's Horn and before the army can be recalled he will swiftly fall upon the defenceless Capital and possess it."

"Alas!" exclaimed Ten-teh, "why has the end tarried thus long if it be but for this person's ears to carry to the grave so tormenting a message! Yet how comes it, O stranger, that having been admitted to Kha-hia's innermost council you now betray his trust, or how can reliance be placed upon the word of one so treacherous?"

"Touching the reason," replied the stranger, with no appearance of resentment, "that is a matter which must one day lie between Kha hia, this person, and one long since Passed Beyond, and to this end have I uncomplainingly striven for the greater part of a lifetime. For the rest, men do not cross the Kang-lings in mid-winter, wearing away their lives upon those stormy heights, to make a jest of empty words. Already sinking into the Under World, even as I am now powerless to raise myself above the ground, I, Nau-Kaou, swear and attest what I have spoken."

"Yet, alas!" exclaimed Ten-teh, striking his breast bitterly in his dejection, "to what end is it that you have journeyed! Know that out of all the eleven villages by famine and pestilence not another man remains. Beyond the valley stretch the uninhabited sand plains, so that between here and the Capital not a solitary dweller could be found to bear the message."

"The Silent One laughs!" replied Nau-Kaou