To this end the one who bears the message lurks
in a hidden corner of Tai until a certain hour. If I am in a position
to intercept him there he will return the message to my hand; if not,
he will straightway bear it to the integritous K'o-yih."

"May the President of Hades reward you--I am no longer in a position
to do so!" murmured Shan Tien with concentrated feeling. "Draw near,
Kai Lung," he continued sympathetically, "and indicate--with as little
delay as possible--what in your opinion would constitute a sufficient
punishment."

Thus invited and with his cords unbound, Kai Lung advanced and took
his station near the table, Ming-shu noticeably making room for him.

"To be driven from your lofty presence and never again permitted to
listen to the wisdom of your inspired lips would undoubtedly be the
first essential of my penance, High Excellence."

"It is gran--inflicted," agreed Shan Tien, with swift decision.

"The necessary edict may conveniently be drafted in the form of a
safe-conduct for this person and all others of his band to a point
beyond the confines of your jurisdiction--when the usually
agile-witted Ming-shu can sufficiently shake off the benumbing torpor
now assailing him so as to use his brush."

"It is already begun, O virtuous harbinger of joy," protested the
dazed Ming-shu, overturning all the four precious implements in his
passion to comply. "A mere breath of time--"

"Let it be signed, sealed and thumb-pressed at every available point
of ambiguity," enjoined Shan Tien.

"Having thus oppressed the vainglory of my self-willed mind, the
presumption of this unworthy body must be subdued likewise. The burden
of five hundred taels of silver should suffice. If not--"

"In the form of paper obligations, estimable Kai Lung, the same amount
would go more conveniently within your scrip," suggested the Mandarin
hopefully.

"Not convenience, O Mandarin, but bodily exhaustion is the essence of
my task," reproved the story-teller.

"Yet consider the anguish of my internal pang, if thus encumbered, you
sank spent by the wayside, and being thereby unable to withhold the
message, you were called upon to endure a further ill."

"That, indeed, is worthy of our thought," confessed Kai Lung. "To this
end I will further mortify myself by adventuring upon the uncertain
apex of a trustworthy steed (a mode of progress new to my experience)
until I enter Tai."

"The swiftest and most reputable awaits your