THE VISION OF YIN, THE SON OF YAT HUANG

When Yin, the son of Yat Huang, had passed beyond the years assigned
to the pursuit of boyhood, he was placed in the care of the hunchback
Quang, so that he might be fully instructed in the management of the
various weapons used in warfare, and also in the art of stratagem, by
which a skilful leader is often enabled to conquer when opposed to an
otherwise overwhelming multitude. In all these accomplishments Quang
excelled to an exceptional degree; for although unprepossessing in
appearance he united matchless strength to an untiring subtlety. No
other person in the entire Province of Kiang-si could hurl a javelin
so unerringly while uttering sounds of terrifying menace, or could
cause his sword to revolve around him so rapidly, while his face
looked out from the glittering circles with an expression of
ill-intentioned malignity that never failed to inspire his adversary
with irrepressible emotions of alarm. No other person could so
successfully feign to be devoid of life for almost any length of time,
or by his manner of behaving create the fixed impression that he was
one of insufficient understanding, and therefore harmless. It was for
these reasons that Quang was chosen as the instructor of Yin by Yat
Huang, who, without possessing any official degree, was a person to
whom marks of obeisance were paid not only within his own town, but
for a distance of many li around it.

At length the time arrived when Yin would in the ordinary course of
events pass from the instructorship of Quang in order to devote
himself to the commerce in which his father was engaged, and from time
to time the unavoidable thought arose persistently within his mind
that although Yat Huang doubtless knew better than he did what the