hand.

_Makuro_

Slavery will be born again with depths the ancients never knew.

_Shun_

But the spirit of brotherhood is growing.

_Makuro_

Power has no brothers! It was you who taught me that, Yu Tai Shun.

_Shun_

Do you forget that we built our republic with the aid of these same
princes of power?

_Ching_

We forget nothing. They let us beat down the throne because they could
not use it--a rigid tradition--but the republic--_they_ are the
republic!

_Shun_

Can we not trust a little? In our greatest need, alien hands have
reached out to help us. And we have true hearts among our Chinese
lords. Not all have joined with the invader to herd the people into
slave-yards. Pei Chen-Ping and Sa Yi are most liberal. You, Prince
Ching, and those you gather to you, have hearts like the rising sun. And
the noble princes of the house of Wong--have they not given me my bride?

_Ching_

Ay, when your sighs had blown around the world for seven years, they
yielded her. You were a power to be checked, and they set a woman in
your path.

_Shun_

No!

_Ching_

It was a Japanese from the Fushun collieries, a Russian prince of the
Northern railways, a French buyer of Yunnan copper, a British ship-baron
of Hongkong, and the Chinese owners of the unworked gold veins of
Szechuan, who went to the brothers of Wong Fe and said: "Give Yu Tai
Shun his bride."

_Shun_

It was you who spoke for me!

_Ching_

You had no father, and in my heart you were my son. I spoke for you
because I believed in you. I did not think that any bribe could lure you
from us. Yours was a soul that we thought would be a torch to every
nation of earth. And you choose to go out like a candle in the breath of
a woman.

(YU TAI SHUN _is bowed and silent._ MAKURO _touches his sleeve._)

_Makuro_

Come with us, master.

_Ching_

In half an hour the boat will stop at the orchard pier for Makuro. He
starts for Japan. It is there you are needed.

_Makuro_

I come from our friends with their summons. Japan's oligarchy of
traders, with every means known to power--school, religion, racial pride
and hate--is fostering the spirit of war. All the seeds of the jungle
are being deliberately sown once more in men's hearts. They are
preparing Japan to hold the largest share of an industrially broken
China and weld her millions into one instrument of hate against the
West.

_Shun_

A pigmy's dream!

_Ching_

A dream that will co