Page:Ernest Bramah - Kai Lungs Golden Hours.djvu/322

Rh Kam. "Perchance they of the eleven villages sent some special message of gratifying loyalty which you would relate without delay?"

"They slept, omnipotence, or without doubt it would be so," replied Ten-teh.

"Truly," agreed the Emperor. "It was night when you set forth, my father?"

"The shadows had fallen deeply upon the Upper Seng valley," said Ten-teh evasively.

"The Keeper of the Imperial Stores has frequently conveyed to us their expressions of unfeigned gratitude for the bounty by which we have sought to keep alive the memory of their hospitality and our own indebtedness," said the Emperor.

"The sympathetic person cannot have overstated their words," replied Ten-teh falteringly. "Never, as their own utterances bear testimony, never was food more welcome, fuel more eagerly sought for, and clothing more necessary than in the years of the most recent past."

"The assurance is as dew upon the drooping lotus," said Kwo Kam, with a lightening countenance. "To maintain the people in an unshaken prosperity, to frown heavily upon extortion, and to establish justice throughout the land—these have been the achievements of the years of peace. Yet often, O my father, this one's mind has turned yearningly to the happier absence of strife and the simple abundance which you and they of the valley know."

"The deities ordain and the balance weighs; your reward will be the greater," replied Ten-teh. Already he spoke with difficulty and his eyes were fast closing, but he held himself rigidly, well knowing that his spirit must still obey his will.