Page:Weird Tales Volume 37 Number 01 (1943-09).djvu/86

 bamboo grove had caught fire. He had been tricked. He vowed vengeance on the old servant who had placed him in so perilous a position. The flames were gaining on him and he was forced to run. But the bamboo shoots seemed intent on blocking his path. It was all he could do to push them aside. What might have happened isn't pleasant to think, had it not been for a sudden ending of the scene. Far above almost out of sight in the sky, a lone plane was flying. The flaming grove was an easy target. The bomb curved down gracefully. As it struck, the grove was not on fire anymore and Lin Kia had ceased running.

The rest of the night was peaceful, still. Then morning came.

At Five Elm Lodge, the renegades awakened, all but Fan Su whose glazed eyes had not closed throughout the flight of the moon. The others rose to their feet and gazed at the cadaver. To-jun leaned down and retrieved his knife. Not by the flickering of an eyelid did he betray his astonishment that this knife had caused the destruction of a man on whom he had vowed vengeance. Had the knife heard his vow and proceeded to carry it out without his motivation? To-jun was superstitious. He believed that the air was filled with disembodied spirits all evil. He looked up to find himself peering into the barrel of a revolver.

"I am Fan Lee," said one of the renegades. "Fan Su was my brother. No Chinese lives and sleeps in the same house as the murderer of his brother. That is the root of our philosophy. You have caused me to break the string that binds me to my brother. So you must die, I am sorry, but there is no other way out."

The gun spoke twice. They buried both bodies a short distance from the inn, without benefit of coffin, or services of any kind. There were no mourners. The six souls of the dead men could proceed whithersoever they wished. It was no concern of the renegades who had a duty to perform.

HEY returned to the inn, the four of them that remained alive. That day they ate morning rice at the same table. Some impending horror seemed to bind them together by a spell.

"If this continues," said P'ang Hao, "not one of us will survive to complete the task that brought us all to the inn. I have a growing suspicion that we are all in the same work." As he spoke he placed a bit of jade on the table before him. His three companions produced similar jade fragments.

"Those jade amulets bind us all together," mused Hu Liang. "It makes brothers of us all, the fact that we are bound together as representatives of Colonel Nagai."

"Mention the name in hushed tones," advised P'ang Hao. "It appears that this section of Hangchow is not healthy for those who are in the employ of the Japanese."

"Especially if they stop for a night or two at 'Five Elm Lodge'," added Fan Lee. "Woe unto the day that brought my brother and I to this house. Now he has hung up his hat and I will converse with him no more."

"Truly it seems that we are being decimated because we are emissaries of Colonel Nagai," said Hu Liang slowly. "Might it not be possible that the very earth is at war with the Japanese, fighting the cause of China? I had a friend who was rendered useless by a tree that fell upon him. The mist and the mountains are in league with China because for untold centuries the Chinese have lived close to the soil. For years I have carried on my work and never did I fail to complete a commission. Even bandits shuddered at my approach and look at me now, how pitifully has the mighty fallen. My sleep is disturbed by dreams