Page:Weird Tales Volume 36 Number 11 (1943-05).djvu/35

 to survive floods without undo fatigue. In short a drug that will bestow upon them the province of living under water indefinitely."

"An interesting proposition," said Doctor Shen Fu gently. "And I am glad that you have consulted me for my library is bulging with ancient manuscripts, some that have been recopied from bamboo books, on the 'lien tan', the drug of trans-mutation and of the powdered pearl medicine which is the concrete essence of the moon. Let me ponder over my manuscripts for a few days. I am sure that the results will be worth your trouble."

So General Nishikori departed and returned again in three days. Doctor Shen Fu greeted him in a manner that was almost affable.

"A book is only a man talking," he said, "and since your departure I have been listening to the voices of the ancients. But it was not until this early morning, that my efforts were rewarded. All through the night I loitered in my garden, entranced by the countless whispering voices about me. When the dawn crimsoned the sky with peony splendor, I drank the dew that had fallen from the magnolia trees, for I had solved the riddle that so perplexed you. I walked with padded footsteps into my mixing room. No one was about, no one was stirring. The accumulated mass of knowledge I had absorbed so hurriedly, became simplified. I worked fast and with sure hand. I mixed the ingredients well. The resultant pills are perhaps the most expensive to be found in all the world, and, for their purpose, the most powerful."

From his sleeve, he drew an elegant jade bottle with a legend in red grass characters upon it: "May Chiang Kai-shek have ten thousand lives." But Mr. Nishikori paid not the slightest attention to the inscription for he did not understand Chinese, but it wouldn't have mattered if he had been versed in the language of the Four Seas. So intent was he on his purpose, cold perspiration stood out upon his forehead in beads and even his narrow, close cropped head was damp. He took off his glasses and polished them carefully that he might the better see, for Doctor Shen Fu was pouring small vermilion pills into the palm of his hand. Nishikori liked the color. The doctor had staked much on its psychological effect.

"One pill and one pill only, that is all that is necessary," he explained. "Your men will find little difficulty swimming for sustained periods under water. Nor will the effects of the drug wear off, rather will the power of it intensify with each day that passes. My idea for this great boon to humanity was motivated by the writings of renowned Lieh Tzu who ages and ages ago conquered the laws of gravitation. Accounts of his adventures are written history for all who care to read."

While the doctor was speaking, General Nishikori gulped two of the pills, believing he was unobserved. Shen Fu smiled and the eyes of his heart grew merry but his face mirrored not his thoughts. Perhaps, ere long, the ghost of chaos would be halted and the ruined sky swept clean of enemy planes.

"The elixir has been delivered," he said. "Now your payment shall begin. Set out at various street intersections of the city, huge tubs of cooked rice that the poor may eat till their stomachs groan. My clerks will designate the positions where the tubs are to be placed and they will go along with you to see that instructions are carried out and to insure the good quality of the rice. It is fitting that I have put into those tiny pellets certain ingredients that, for want of a better word, I shall call harmonious elements. With discord they will evaporate as surely as the clouds are a dragon and the wind a tiger. The slightest chicanery might spoil the experiment."

General Nishikori was a man of action.