This humble affair settled, the elders of neighbourhood gathered to decide what should become of the boy and how the debt which had been incurred for the burial and the sickness should be met. The amount realized by the few effects left was barely sufficient to pay one half, and it was necessary by some means to find security for the balance. The boy was the last unliquidated asset.

He had been given shelter in a house near by; and when he heard that they were debating the question of apprenticing him to a big foundry just inside the city gate so that his work might liquidate the debt, he became alarmed.

After much silent cogitation he felt his belt, and finding a coin or two still left, he decided to have his destiny settled once and for all. Slipping quietly down the street, he came to a grave old man seated at a table by the roadside who cast horoscopes.

Without a second's hesitation he placed his money on the table; and sat down obediently on the bare wooden bench to learn his fate.

Every Chinese is possessed of eight characters—four of the Ten Heavenly Stems and four of the Twelve Earthly Branches; and it is by means of these, combined with the Five Elements, that the future may be known. By indicating the year, month, date and hour of birth, which are taught to children at a very early age, the group of eight characters is assembled: then there remains the question of discovering which of the Five Elements, that is metal, wood, water, fire or earth, is to dominate the group and how the interpretation is to be read. The most skilled use the Book of Changes, which was in common use some thirty centuries ago, and by this method see clearly into some scores of years. But there are common fellows who work as well on a simpler system.

Wang the Ninth believed implicitly in all this as a European child believes in the Biblical story of Creation. The truth of it was so immanent that it was a mere manifestation of scholarship to ascertain the precise facts. So he settled himself on the hard wooden bench all attention while the old man peered at him over his spectacles, and arranged the little painted squares with their distinctive characters as he replied to the questions. Presently he had all the data complete—save for the determination of the element which would control him. When he learnt that he was a blacksmith's son he put all the elements aside save metal and fire; with these two in his fingers he consulted his books.

"You were born by fire," he said at last. "That is quite clear to me from the insistence with which your year indicative is repeated under the fire-element. By fire you will live and be tested. Wait till I combine: then we may see how the future grows."

With that he swept the fire-character into the heap of Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches: he shuffled the lot slowly backwards and forwards under his hands as a priest performs a rite. Then he took three ancient coins and shook them in a goblet: three times he repeated the process so that he should acquire the necessary guidance. He noted swiftly with the aid of his brush their import on a piece of red paper, and muttered to himself at the insistence with which the original indications were repeated.

Wang the Ninth sat stone-still watching every movement. A soldier with a bundle of clothing on his shoulder had stopped in idle curiosity: there was another wayfarer or two as well. All these people were silent in the presence of learning; for each one of them at the appointed season would consult such a man regarding marriage or distant journeys or the settling of any important business.

Now the old man stopped his shuffling motion abruptly, aligned the characters, and drank in their meaning as a scholar does a clear script. The onlookers crowded forward so as not to miss a word.

"Born by fire," he began, "you are in opposition to water—yet are you attracted by it. Everything from water must influence you. By water, rivers and oceans are meant: dominated will you be by something from over the sea which will shape your life and violate your ancestry."

He consulted a book.

"Yet fire will return to you. By fire will you be tested. See here is it written—strange men shall lift you up and great perils shall you face but you will not flinch. Stormy will be your life, but finally successful. Violent death will approach you but you will survive. Your destiny is with unaccustomed things which will come upon you before you are yet a man and drag you far away. So is it written. I would scan your features."

The boy rose and put his strong ugly face close to the learned one who now murmured:

"Confirmatory signs are evident in the features. The mouth, colour, nose, ears are good, but there is lacking the proper heaviness of eyebrow. Guard against being turned from your purpose, for there is weakness in your eyebrows. Now the hands?"

The boy held out his hands but the old man did not consult the palms: he was interested only in the shape.

"The fire-test," he murmured, "everywhere the fire-test. In four places is the character written as clearly as with the brush. Go, I have told you all."

"But the year of the test, may I not learn the year?"

The old man muttered to himself.

"Yes," he said, "that is also marked. But let me confirm."

Again he shook the three little cash arranging a character at each throw.

"There it is written for you," he remarked, "by the cylic sign. Keng-tzu-nien—the twenty-sixth year of the Emperor. This year is the twenty-fourth. In two years your test will come."

The boy walked away slowly—powerfully impressed by what had been told him. He left unanswered a taunting remark of the soldier with the bundle. He was absorbed by the prospect held out to him. It was his manifest destiny to become associated with foreigners in some way. The mere fact that this coincided with the plan he had already dimly formed so impressed him that a sort of timidity possessed him.

He stopped by the banks of the Imperial Canal, near the scenes of his youthful escapades with the Imperial barges, and threw stones idly at some ducks in the water which sought shelter with a loud quacking. But amusements which formerly used to delight him had lost their power. He ate his evening meal in silence, not telling any one what he had done and he went to sleep in the same uncommunicative mood. He was awake at dawn and yawning greatly, he idled about waiting for the first meal so that he could at least make his escape on a full stomach.

By noon not only had he eaten, but everybody was engaged or away. So very quietly he rolled up his strip of bedding, thrust such spare clothing as he had inside, and got out of the window with the speed and stealth of a cat. Then with his head down he ran by a circuitous route through the fields, not to his own city gate, where he was so well-known, but due south to the next gate where he was a total stranger. Through this one he entered the city and rapidly made his way to the foreign quarter where he had never been.

The afternoon sun was flooding the streets with golden light when he passed the first foreigner's door. There was strange writing on the door, resembling the Arabic on the houses of rich Mohammedans, he thought to himself. He slowed down and began dawdling, hoping that he would receive some guidance. At last he addressed himself to a doorkeeper—but the man hardly listened to him. Then he saw a groom with some foreign horses, and he loitered up to him and asked him if he knew a foreigner with a big red beard. This man laughed and said that many had red beards and that as he did not know the name he could not say. The boy being tired, sat down on his bundle, and watched every foreigner who passed. Ten or twelve did he see in the course of an hour but none had red beards and all paid no more attention to him than had he been a stone on the roadway. Perhaps the man with the red beard had gone away. As this thought occurred to him he became sorrowful. Then fatalism possessed him and he knew that he would meet him; and presently, oddly comforted, he had an inspiration. Now he went to the nearest foreign gateway, and accosting a man there asked:

"Is there no place where I can most easily see all the foreigners?"

To his delight the man answered—there was a guild-house where they played daily with balls and otherwise amused themselves.

Rapidly he made his way to the spot indicated, and took his stand.

Dusk was coming and it was hard to see. Carts and ponies were collected near this entrance and the carters and grooms sat and talked together. Wang the Ninth, very hungry, now tightened his belt and stiffened his purpose.

Time flowed by as he watched by the oil-lamp. Foreigners came in and went out, sometimes singly, sometimes in pairs. There were not as many as he had expected—in fact there were few. But presently his heart leaped and he ran forward calling. Here was the red-bearded man walking by himself with a big stick in his hand.

"I have come for employment ta lao-yeh (your Honour)," he babbled, speech pouring from his mouth like water from a tap. "Many miles have I walked without food to seek you and to find what I may. If you will give me favour, I will serve diligently."

The red-bearded man had paused amused.

"Where do you come from?" he asked in the colloquial.

"From the west city gate," said the boy. "Once I met in years gone by Your Honour. You were riding. By you was a lady. I was small and in the dust. I ran and crouched away, for never had I seen a foreigner before. So did I remain with my head bowed. Then as you passed you laughed and spoke in your language to the lady and she laughed even as your excellency had done. There was a great flash. I foolishly thought it was your magic to destroy me; but you had thrown a silver dollar to me and it had rolled to where I lay. I picked it up and to all in the neighbourhood is the story known. Since early childhood have I remembered. Now that I am without father or mother or other support I come for employment from your Honour."

The big red-bearded man had listened without a word. Could any one have looked close into his eyes they would have seen there a certain moisture. Twice he looked down at the boy and twice away. Then he said abruptly:

"I can remember, too. The years are not so many. Follow me. Employment shall be found."

He marched straight down the street until he came to the gateway guarded by the self-same gatekeeper who had so angrily repudiated any knowledge of him. The gateway, now open and lighted offered a warm welcome; and Wang the Ninth, safe in the knowledge that he was adequately protected, followed his patron in with a contemptuous smile, whilst his erstwhile oppressor shut the gate behind them and then stood watching them motionless. Down the broad walk the red-bearded man led the boy never saying a word until he reached the door of his house.

"Wait here," he remarked briefly as he entered.

The boy, left alone in the dim light, was not in the least embarrassed by his surroundings. He examined the broad verandah and the flowering bushes in the ample compound with appreciation in his eyes.

"This is good," he said to himself. "Here is one who is obviously wealthy. No matter what my task may be, I shall never lack anything year in and year out."

As these thoughts occurred to him exultation coursed through his body. This was more wonderful than anything he had expected. Cautiously he approached the front-door and peered in through the glass; the interior was full of all sorts of other valuables such as he had never seen before.

His mouth watered, and his eyes remained round with astonishment.

"This is beyond reckoning," he murmured to himself approvingly. "Each thing has its fixed value and added together they make a great sum. It is quite evident that if many are poor some are rich."

He was still engaged in cogitating the matter when the voice of the red-bearded man sounded behind him. He turned with a start and saw that he was approaching with servant who was listening to him respectfully.

"Come here," said the master. "What is your name?"

"Wang old number nine, your Honour," answered the boy, using his common appellation in the manner of the common people.

At that both master and man laughed.

"But your full name?" inquired the former.

The boy stammered:

"My full name? From the moment I was carried to the city always have I been called Wang the Ninth, being the eighth child of my father's family. Chih Liang is my personal appellation, though never used. But it is as you wish."

Once again master and man smiled. There was a directness in this talk which was as the soul of democracy.

"And what have you done in the way of work?" asked his patron once again.

The boy hung his head and fidgetted with his hands.

"I have run wild," he confessed. "Sometimes I assisted my father although without regularity. Sometimes I did other work."

"What work?"

He hesitated. Then, though embarrassed not a little, he announced frankly:

"I smuggled wine."

"You smuggled wine! How and when?"

The boy made a rough gesture with his hand, as if explanation were superfluous.

"At dawn I climbed the city wall with others, carrying country wine which had paid no taxes into the city. For many months it went well, but in the end I abandoned it, although there was a daily profit."

The red-bearded man was pulling his beard and observing him much amused.

"A smuggler's apprentice," he exclaimed. "Well, well. I am doing evil to take you. But is it not true that my gatekeeper was once a robber? Tell me, Shih," he continued, turning to his man.

"It is true," answered the groom, who hated the gatekeeper because he was a Mohammedan and had his own customs and was moreover in secret league with all the horse-dealers, who were Muslims, thereby taking from his profit in all buying and selling. "It is known to all."

"So be it," said the master reflectively. "Faithfulness of service is the only important matter." He turned to the boy. "Listen. For one month I shall give you trial in the stables. Food and lodging shall you have. Later the terms of employment will be stated. All depends on what service you render me. Now go."

And with that he left the stripling in the hands of the groom who marched him off to his corner of the compound and assigned him his duties.

Three times a day must he draw water from the well. Twice daily must the horse-courts be swept. It was his business to lead two ponies for their daily exercise. Never must he mount them or else he would be whipped. As for food he showed him the cooking-pots which it was his business to prepare. There was food ready now.

Wang the Ninth, at that invitation, sat on his heels, seized a bowl and chop-sticks, and devoured a meal such as he had seldom eaten. Then, after that, because he had a full belly he talked until he reeled with sleep, retailing to the stable-hands his most exciting adventures. Later, in the unbroken quiet of the horse-courts, he climbed on to the k'ang assigned him and slept a leaden sleep.