Page:Frank Owen - The Wind That Tramps the World (1929).djvu/30

 this country from India. I had two great windows built in the room of 'The Jade Vase.' When these windows are flung open all the winds come crashing through. I have been here for thirty years, thirty years have I failed, and even so I have not lost courage. There is always tomorrow and tomorrow rolling on endlessly. Some day 'The Wind that Tramps the World' will come and when he does I shall be ready for him."

Thus the old Chinaman ended his story and Steppling did not comment upon it. There seemed nothing to say. Words at best are rather futile. He was surprised at the story but then he had traveled much in the world and much had he heard that surprised him. It set many unanswerable queries to floating in his mind. Was Hi Ling sane? For that matter was he sane himself?

All through that night he sat at the door of the house of Hi Ling. He could not sleep. His brain was a cauldron of seething fantastic thoughts. He was on the roof of the world. Much could he see that was invisible to the millions of people down in the Valleys of Earth. The sky was as brilliant as a diamond-studded crown. It bore down upon him, crushing him beneath the weight of its splendor. He was breathing hard. The air was so rarefied that even in the night he could see for miles about him. From the jagged mountain peaks came the constant din and babble of the winds. On up they came from the Valleys on a constant trail that is nobody knows how old.