g
like a silver thread in the distance.

Arrived at its bank, the troops formed into a square with the prisoner
in the centre. Addressing him, the Prime Minister said, "I have
selected this spot rather than the public execution ground where
criminals are put to death. Your crime has been no common one; and so
to-day, in the face of high Heaven whose righteousness you have dared
to violate, and within sound of the flowing waters of the stream that
witnessed the murder, you shall die."

Half a dozen soldiers then threw him violently to the ground, and in a
few minutes the executioner had torn his bleeding heart from his bosom.
Then, standing with it still in his hand, he waited by the side of the
Prime Minister, who read out to the great multitude the indictment
which had been drawn up against the Prefect. In this he described his
crimes, and at the same time appealed to Heaven and to the God of the
River to take measures to satisfy and appease the spirit of him who had
been cut off in the prime of life by the man who had just been executed.

As soon as the reading of the document had been concluded, it was set
fire to and allowed to burn until only the blackened ashes remained.
These, together with the criminal's heart, were then cast into the
river. They were thus formally handed over to the god, who would see
that in the Land of Shadows there should come a further retribution on
the murderer for the crimes he had committed on earth.

The water patrol happened to pass by soon after the ashes and heart had
been flung into the river, and picking them up most carefully, they
carried them to the official residence of the god. The indictment was
at once formally entered amongst the archives of the office, to be used
as evidence when the case was in due time brought before the notice of
Yam-lo: and after looking at the heart with the intensest scrutiny for
some little time, the god exclaimed, "And so the murderer has at last
received some part of the punishment he so richly deserved. It is now
time for me to awake the sleeping husband, so that he may be restored
to the wife from whom he has been separated for eighteen years."

Passing into the Crystal Grotto, where the unconscious form of
Kwang-Jui had reposed for so many years, the god touched the body
gently with his hand, and said:--"Friend, arise! Your wife awaits you,
and loving ones who have long mourned you. Many years of happiness are
still before you, an