Page:Frank Owen - Rare Earth, 1931.djvu/103

 of a man whose very existence is beset by doubt, jealousies, false gods and forbidden iniquities?"

Hung Long Tom was talking verbosely with the set purpose of deflecting Scobee's thoughts into other channels.

"I have been pondering deeply," he went on, "and at last the thought has come to me that even as I turned to your country in my darkest hour, so you must turn to mine in like manner. Come with me to China. It is a curious, unusual country. In China anything and everything may happen. It is the one land that does not go forward in a cut and dried manner. If aught of fantasy exists in the world today it must exist in China. Someone has said that China is not real, that it is only an imagined country. Perhaps that is what makes it a Mecca for world-weary travelers. China is a bizarre country of legend and song, of poetry and mystery, of moon-bridges and carved jade. There you may find your sight again. For in China there are many singular characters, wizards, soothsayers, tea-masters. When one's