and in my dreams I am always fleeing from an unknown terror. Yes, Colonel Nagai has squandered our ability. He must have known how fraught with danger was this undertaking else he would not have sent seven of us to blot out one enemy named Chung Kuo. Alas, it was a fateful undertaking. Three of our men are dead and Chung Kuo still evades us. Is he the wind that blows through the willows, is he the cloud that effaces the moon, or the dew that bathes the flowers at dawn?"
"At 'Five Elm Lodge'," said Tsan Yen slowly, "we were told that we would discover Chung Kuo, but alas our reward was death in a gray mist. Death dwells in this inn, he is the master of the hostelry. Perhaps yon old servant is Chung Kuo. Perhaps he serves us and all the time he is laughing in his sleeve. Old man, are you the mighty Chung Kuo?"
"Would that I were," was the reply. "I am but a servant whose greatest achievement is the cooking of lentils. My work is well done and I can enjoy the quiet of the garden. But Chung Kuo is kind, he never acts like a barbarian, or as though I am beneath him. It would be a great honor if I could be the mighty Chung Kuo who so easily eludes seven assassins, but the gods have ordained it otherwise. I am not a mighty figure in New China but an old servant who joys to doze in the sun and dream of past splendors. Once I possessed a canary who sang so beautifully that I named him Tu Fu.
"A mighty mandarin wished to buy the little singer, but I refused to sell, and so although I was poor, I was richer than the mandarin for I possessed Tu Fu whom he aspired to possess. How pleasant is life when even a servant might enjoy sweet songs."
"I still believe that you are Chung Kuo," muttered P'ang Hao.
"I resent being called an assassin," said Hu Liang angrily.
"Let us not quarrel with the old man who serves us rice," said Fan Lee.
"You are right," agreed P'ang Hao willingly. "It is Colonel Nagai who has betrayed us. He must have known how perilous was our mission or he would not have sent seven to perform it. He cares no more for our lives than if we were enemies."
"After all we are Chinese," Hu Liang said, "and the colonel considers all Chinese are his enemies."
"Well spoken," agreed Fan Lee. "Perhaps Chung Kuo does not exist. Perhaps we were sent here on an errand that was little more than a practical joke. Even now I can see Colonel Nagai laughing. He is laughing up our sleeves."
"Your words are seasoned with wisdom," agreed Hu Liang. "Undoubtedly our comrades have been done away with by vicious Japs at the instigation of Nagai himself. As we sit here now we are all in grave danger. Any moment death may strike us down."
"If it must come, what matter," mused Fan Lee, "but it is not pleasant to think of joining our ancestors with the laughter of the colonel resounding in our ears."
"Let us destroy Nagai to stop his laughter!" burst out P'ang Hao angrily. "We are wasting time here challenging an old servant whose greatest achievement is cooking lentils."
"Or wielding a sharp knife," said Fan Lee, but no one paid the slightest attention to his Observations, so intent were they on their own schemes and plans. Each had decided that he would kill Colonel Nagai and later join the Chinese forces. The business of being a renegade was becoming slightly frayed at the edges. There was no one to work for the Japanese, for to trust a Jap was more foolhardy than to sleep in a bed with a cobra.
Hu Liang voiced the thoughts of all
