CHAPTER XIII
So two winters passed and the boy grew. He was wandering about one of the market-places when he caught his first glimpse of the thing which brought the great crisis in his life and fulfilled his destiny. A crowd had gathered in one corner, and was increasing with such rapidity that it was impossible even to guess what they were looking at. By dint of wriggling and pushing, he finally managed to work his way through and see what was causing the excitement.
In a small open space, a youth of about his age and size, stripped to the waist, was standing in the rigid posture adopted by native athletes before they do some feat of skill. But it was not this which attracted the crowd: it was the fact that he had grasped in his hands a naked sword which he held within two inches of his eyes. Staring at the glittering edge with savage intentness he muttered a stream of unintelligible words, which fell from his lips rhythmically as in an incantation.
In the midst of the deepest silence the people watched with awe-struck looks, no man moving. Gradually the boy's face was assuming an ashen hue. The intensity of his stare was such that the glittering sword hypnotized him. Now he began to sway rhythmically; his lips gradually ceased moving, and the heavy sword trembled and swung in his hands. Sheer will-power held him to the ordeal. Then the appointed end came with dramatic suddenness. With a lurch he fell stiff and rigid to the ground. There he lay insensible, his mouth wide open as if uttering a soundless scream.
"What is it?" whispered Wang the Ninth under his breath to his nearest neighbour, a butcher with the leather apron of his trade still attached to him.
The man looked down at him in a troubled way.
"I-ho-ch'uan, the Sword Society," he said abruptly.
A confederate of the boy, who had been standing to one side, now approached. Quickly picking up the fallen sword, he stabbed the boy in the muscles of the arm as he lay there. There was no blood.
"Bear witness," he exclaimed in a thick voice, waving the sword defiantly. "All who embrace the belief need fear no guns or swords."