Page:Frank Owen - The Scarlett Hill, 1941.djvu/229

RV 224 (LI PO) Li Po watched the antics of the magician. He was a trifle bored. In his travels about the provinces he had seen so many exhibitions of legerdemain that they no longer interested him.

Ch'i-ch'i poked among the ashes. Then suddenly he snatched the cloth from the smouldering embers. He shook it in the wind so that all charred bits of ashes might fall from it. Then he spread it out on the ground. Now it was snow-white, clear and clean as the evening sky after rain.

Yang Kuei-fei leaned forward. "Marvelous!" she cried. "Marvelous. Oh, I want it! I want it!"

Ch'i-ch'i bowed gracefully. "With Your Majesty's permission," he said, "I should like to present the cloth that has been purified by fire to the Princess."

"You may do so," said the Emperor, "and I will see that your thoughtfulness is most fittingly rewarded, but first will you not give us an explanation of this amazing fire-proof cloth?"

"With pleasure, Your Majesty, though it is a strange and unbelievable tale. Still we have the cloth in existence to vouch for its authenticity." He did not bother adding that the magician at Loyang from whom he had purchased the cloth had also given him an ancient scroll entitled the "She-chow-ke," more than nine hundred years old. He had studied it assiduously prior to his audience with the Emperor.

"In the Southern Ocean," he said, "a full round of the moon distant from the coast of China, there is a RV 224 (224)