slain will suffice
to win approval?"

"Crocodile-eyed one!" exclaimed Melodious Vision, surprised into
wrathfulness. "How many--" Here she withdrew in abrupt vehemence.

"Your progress has been rapid and profound," remarked Shen Yi, as,
with flattering attention, he accompanied Chang Tao some part of the
way towards the door. "Never before has that one been known to leave a
remark unsaid; I do not altogether despair of seeing her married yet.
As regards the encounter with the dragon--well, in the case of the one
whispering in your ear there was the revered mother of the one whom he
sought. After all, a dragon is soon done with--one way or the other."

In such a manner Chang Tao set forth to encounter dragons, assured
that difficulties and dangers would accompany him on either side. In
this latter detail he was inspired, but as the great light faded and
the sky-lantern rose in interminable succession, while the
unconquerable li ever stretched before his expectant feet, the
essential part of the undertaking began to assume a dubious facet. In
the valleys and fertile places he learned that creatures of this part
now chiefly inhabited the higher fastnesses, such regions being more
congenial to their wild and intractable natures. When, however, after
many laborious marches he reached the upper peaks of pathless
mountains the scanty crag-dwellers did not vary in their assertion
that the dragons had for some time past forsaken those heights for the
more settled profusion of the plains. Formerly, in both places they
had been plentiful, and all those whom Chang Tao questioned spoke
openly of many encounters between their immediate forefathers and such
Beings.

It was in the downcast frame of mind to which the delays in
accomplishing his mission gave rise that Chang Tao found himself
walking side by side with one who bore the appearance of an affluent
merchant. The northernward way was remote and solitary, but seeing
that the stranger carried no outward arms Chang Tao greeted him
suitably and presently spoke of the difficulty of meeting dragons, or
of discovering their retreats from dwellers in that region.

"In such delicate matters those who know don't talk, and those who
talk don't know," replied the other sympathetically. "Yet for what
purpose should one who would pass as a pacific student seek to
encounter dragons?"

"For a sufficient private reason it is necessary that I should kill a
certain number," replied Chang