my name and the traditions of my race. Nowhere can I find a Dragon
Painter!"

Ando put his hand out quickly behind him, seized the long roll tied in
yellow cloth, and began to unfasten it.

Kano was panting with the vehemence of his own speech. He poured
another little cup of tea and drained it. He began now to watch Ando,
and found himself annoyed by the deliberation of his friend's motions.
"Strange, strange----" Ando was murmuring. An instant later came the
whisper, "very, very strange!"

"Why do you repeat it?" cried Kano, irritably. "There was nothing
strange in what I said."

The parcel was now untied. Ando held a roll of papers outward.
"Examine these, Kano Indara," he said impressively. "If I do not
greatly mistake, the gods, at last, have heard your prayer."

Kano went backward as if from fire. "No! I cannot,--I must not hope!
Too long have I searched. Not a schoolboy who thought he could draw an
outline in the sand with his toe but I have fawned on him. I dare not
look. Ando, to-day I am shaken as if with an ague of the soul.
I--I--could not bear another disappointment." He did indeed seem
piteously weak and old. He hid his face in long, lean, twitching
fingers.

Ando was sincerely affected. "This is to be no disappointment," said
he, gently. "I pray you, listen patiently to my clumsy speech."

"I will strive to listen calmly," said Kano, in a broken voice. "But
first honorably secrete the papers once again. They tantalize my
sight."

Uchida put them down on the floor beside him and threw the cloth
carelessly above. He was more moved than he cared to show. He strove
now to speak simply, directly, and with convincing earnestness. Kano
had settled into his old attitude of dejection.

"One morning, not more than six weeks ago," began Uchida, "the
engineering party which I command had climbed some splintered peaks of
the Kiu Shiu range to a spot quite close, indeed, to that thin
waterfall which you remember----"

"One might forget his friends and relatives, but not a waterfall like
that!" interrupted Kano.

"Suddenly a storm, blown down apparently from a clear sky, caught up
the mountain and our little group of men in a great blackness."

"The mountain deities were angered at your presumption," nodded Kano,
well pleased.

"It may be," admitted the other. "At any rate, the winds now hurried
in from the sea. Round cloud vapors split sidewise on the wedges of
the rocks. Voic