Page:Frank Owen - Rare Earth, 1931.djvu/228

 whatsoever. Hours or minutes what matter? But time-pieces themselves are highly regarded not because they give such good service but because they are universally considered objects d'art. So was it with Loo Zoo. He had clocks from every quarter of the globe. Gold and silver clocks, ivory clocks, mahogany, oak, ebony, brass clocks. Water clocks, cuckoo clocks, ship's clocks. Guests who stopped for a night at his palace at Peking were constantly awakened throughout the night by the booming of the endless clocks in the sombre, musk-scented halls.

Loo Zoo never passed through Canton without stopping for a moment at least at the garden.

"Some day," he meditated, "I shall make an amber rug that will outshine all jewels in splendor."

Loo Zoo was jealous of the fine collection of jewels which the father of Hung Long Tom had left. They were more colorful than his rugs. They contained more warmth and fire. Nor was he aware that they were less colorful