they travel irresistibly
along the road that leads to vengeance on the wrongdoer.
One dark night, when the sky was overcast and neither moon nor stars
were to be seen, and a storm of unusual violence was filling the air
with a tumult of fierce and angry meanings, a weird and gruesome scene
was enacted at the grave where the father of Yin had been buried.
Hideous sounds of wailing and shrieking could be heard, as though all
the demons of the infernal regions had assembled there to hold a night
of carnival. Louder than the storm, the cries penetrated through the
shrillest blasts, and people in their homes far away were wakened out
of their sleep by the unearthly yells which froze their blood with
terror. At last a thunderbolt rolled from the darkened heavens, louder
than ever mortal man had heard. The lightnings flashed, and
concentrating all their force upon the grave just where the coffin lay,
they tore up a huge chasm in the earth, and gripping the coffin within
their fiery fingers, they tossed it with disdain upon a hillside a mile
away.
After a long search, Yin discovered it next day in the lonely spot
where it had been cast, and was returning to make arrangements for its
interment, when in a lonely part of the road two unearthly figures
suddenly rose up before him. These, to his horror, he recognized as
the spirits of Pearl's father and mother who had practically been done
to death by him, and whom Yam-lo had allowed to revisit the earth in
order to plague the man who was the author of their destruction. So
terrified was Yin at their wild and threatening aspect, that he fell to
the ground in a swoon, and thus he was found, hours afterwards, by his
son, who had come out in search of him.
For several days he was tended with the greatest care, and the most
famous physicians were called in to prescribe for him. He never
rallied, however, and there was always a vague and haunted look in his
eyes, as though he saw some terrible vision which frightened away his
reasoning powers and prevented him from regaining consciousness. In
this condition he died, without a look of recognition for those he
loved, and without a word of explanation as to the cause of this tragic
conclusion of a life that was still in its prime.
The eldest son was now master of his father's wealth; but instead of
learning a lesson from the terrible judgment which had fallen on his
home because of the injustice and wrong that had been commit
|