Page:Ernest Bramah - Kai Lungs Golden Hours.djvu/39

Rh care was to erect adequate sheds and labouring places; his next to build a house sufficient for himself and those in attendance round about him.

So far prudence had ruled his actions, for there is a keen edge to the saying, "He who sleeps over his workshop brings four eyes into the business," but in one detail Wong Ts'in's head and feet went on different journeys, for with incredible oversight he omitted to secure the experience of competent astrologers and omen- casters in fixing the exact site of his mansion.

The result was what might have been expected. In excavating for the foundations Wong Ts'in's slaves disturbed the repose of a small but rapacious earth-demon that had already been sleeping there for nine hundred and ninety-nine years. With the insatiable cunning of its kind, this vindictive creature waited until the house was completed and then proceeded to transfer its unseen but formidable presence to the quarters that were designed for Wong Ts'in himself. Thenceforth, from time to time, it continued to revenge itself for the trouble to which it had been put by an insidious persecution. This frequently took the form of fastening its claws upon the merchant's digestive organs, especially after he had partaken of an unusually rich repast (for in some way the display of certain viands excited its unreasoning animosity), pressing heavily upon his chest, invading his repose with dragon-dreams while he slept, and the like. Only by the exercise of an ingenuity greater than its own could Wong Ts'in succeed in baffling its ill-conditioned spite.

On this occasion, recognising from the nature of his pangs what was taking place, Wong Ts'in resorted to