Evening star., 1937-10-10
Mesozins Section

shouted an unintelligible order to his soldiers.
He himself moved toward the door, docile
to his fate. He was an old man, a very old. old
man.
The Japanese major ran back and met him.
"Wait" he commanded, peremptorily.
OF course. The Japanese did not want him
accidentally killed. They wanted first to ques-
ton him.
He waited, the Japanese major nervously
lingering the automatic pistol in his holster
The rapid air-shaking anti-aircraft fire was
like the persuasive detonations of an immense
machine gun he had heard machine guns
enough in these past twenty seven years. He
remembered, with a curious vividness, the
machine guns when, on one of the merchant
journeys through the interior that he had
made in his younger days. he had been in
voluntarily caught in battle between two
rival and equally despicable war lords. Enor-
nous explosions followed, near and nearer. He
waited, hands in his sleeves.
Through that fury of detonations, his ear
caught hideous, curiously unnerving screech
rapidly louder. terrifyingly louder. 1t ended.
close at hand, in an appalling explosion like the
end of the world.
Unbelievably. he was not killed, not HI
thought, doubtfuiiy, as he struggled to his feet
in the whelm of smoke even hurt. The
japanese major was prostrate on the floor.
Dead? No. The tubby little man writhed.
There were wild shrieks outside. The bomb
must have fallen directly on the japanese
soldiers in the courtyard. What had happened
to T'ien Ian? To his child? The japanese
major was convulsively dying. He could go,
ask in the women's quarters whence, family,
through the continuing din of bombs and anti
aircraft guns, he could hear screaming. 1t was
T'ien Lans hour.
The Japanese major saw his movement. The
dying hands tugged at the holster, pulled out
the pistol, leveled it. Something hit him, some
thing noiseless in the uproar. He found himself
stretched on the floor, near the major who
gasped and died.
He could not have told how long he lay
there, but always his gaze, more and more
misty, was fixed on the doorway where any
moment the woman from the birth chamber
should appear.
There she was. fat, elderly, wild-looking. In
her excitement, she was unmindful of the
abnolnlality of his prone position on the floor.
The noise of battle had somehow, somewhen.
ceased. He propped himself precariously, on an
elbow. He must already have spoken to her.
She was answering him.
'They are all safe. Master. The Lady T'ien
Ian and the little one!''
''The little one?" He choked. "It is p"
He dared not utter the query.
1T is man child. A fine man child!' The
woman laughed hysterically
He also laughed. gaspingly. He had a son,
The woman still laughed. Historically. "The
Lady Tien Ian says she's going to make him
soldier!'
He could not have heard Alright. He was
wounded - badly wounded. The sons of people
such as he and T'ien Ian were officials, mer
chants, but never soldiers - the ultimate in the
despicable. He could not have heard Alright.
What did you say?'
The woman was still hysterical. crazy laugh
ing at mad world. "The Lady Tien Ian
says that Young China needs new type of
soldier - soldiers of honorable families. Only
so, she says. can China be free -"
He was sharply bewildered. Young China?
T'ien Ian talked of Young China? Short
haired yin-and- yang confusing students -
Tien Ian whose tiny feet we're as lovely,
Golden lilies2