nce is the distressing
feature, as being an obstacle in the path of that undeviating justice
in which our legal system is embedded. From the first moment of our
encountering it had been my well-intentioned purpose that loyal
confidence should be strengthened and rebellion cowed by submitting
this opportune but otherwise inoffensive stranger to a sordid and
degrading end. Yet how shall this beneficent example be attained if on
every occasion--"

"Your design is a worthy and enlightened one," interposed the
Mandarin, with dignity. "What you have somewhat incapably overlooked,
Ming-shu, is the fact that I never greet this intelligent and
painstaking young man without reminding him of the imminence of his
fate and of his suitability for it."

"Truth adorns your lips and accuracy anoints your palate,"
volunteered Kai Lung.

"Be this as the destinies permit, there is much that is circuitous in
the bending of events," contended Ming-shu stubbornly. "Is it by
chance or through some hidden tricklage that occasion always finds Kai
Lung so adequately prepared?"

"It is, as the story of Chang Tao has this day justified, and as this
discriminating person has frequently maintained, that the one in
question has a story framed to meet the requirement of every
circumstance," declared Shan Tien.

"Or that each requirement is subtly shaped to meet his preparation,"
retorted Ming-shu darkly. "Be that as it shall perchance ultimately
appear, it is undeniable that your admitted weaknesses--"

"Weaknesses!" exclaimed the astonished Mandarin, looking around the
room as though to discover in what crevice the unheard-of attributes
were hidden. "This person's weaknesses? Can the sounding properties of
this ill-constructed roof thus pervert one word into the semblance of
another? If not, the bounds set to the admissible from the taker-down
of the spoken word, Ming-shu, do not in their most elastic moods
extend to calumny and distortion. . . . The one before you has no
weaknesses. . . . Doubtless before another moon has changed you will
impute to him actual faults!"

"Humility directs my gaze," replied Ming-shu, with downcast eyes, and
he plainly recognized that his presumption had been too maintained.
"Yet," he added, with polished irony, "there is a well-timed adage
that rises to the lips: 'Do not despair; even Yuen Yan once cast a
missile at the Tablets!'"

"Truly," agreed Shan Tien, with smooth concurrence, "the line is not
unknown