CHAPTER V

THE CONFESSION OF KAI LUNG

Related by himself at Wu-whei when other matter failed him.

As Kai Lung, the story-teller, unrolled his mat and selected, with
grave deliberation, the spot under the mulberry-tree which would the
longest remain sheltered from the sun's rays, his impassive eye
wandered round the thin circle of listeners who had been drawn
together by his uplifted voice, with a glance which, had it expressed
his actual thoughts, would have betrayed a keen desire that the
assembly should be composed of strangers rather than of his most
consistent patrons, to whom his stock of tales was indeed becoming
embarrassingly familiar. Nevertheless, when he began there was nothing
in his voice but a trace of insufficiently restrained triumph, such as
might be fitly assumed by one who has discovered and makes known for
the first time a story by the renowned historian Lo Cha.

"The adventures of the enlightened and nobly-born Yuin-Pel--"

"Have already thrice been narrated within Wu-whei by the versatile but
exceedingly uninventive Kai Lung," remarked Wang Yu placidly. "Indeed,
has there not come to be a saying by which an exceptionally frugal
host's rice, having undoubtedly seen the inside of the pot many times,
is now known in this town as Kai-Pel?"

"Alas!" exclaimed Kai Lung, "well was this person warned of Wu-whei in