Page:Shen of the Sea.pdf/163

 warned, and fore-umbrellaed. And if war was predicted for Friday, he was forearmed and ready to give two blows for one. He knew of the third flood a whole week before it happened, and, you may be sure, had a palatial boat provisioned and ready—laden with rice and musical instruments—a good three days before the waters came.

Rather unexpectedly, it became imperative for King Chan Ko to take horse on an urgent journey. Despite the call for great haste, he refused to make one step before casting the signs—though to do so made necessary an hour's labor. On his plane Chan Ko scribed the three circles with their bisecting lines. He drew the sun, moon, and stars in their relative places, gazed for a moment and groaned. "Ai yu," and "Hai ya."

Well might he groan. There was no error in the work. No other reading was possible. Upon the following night a dragoon would swoop down from the moon and carry off the Princess Yun Chi. That was the reading, and there could be no doubting its truth. It