And no two stones stood together. Ah! our war with the white
races had been successful. We had not used their fighting machines,
as did that nation of little brown men, the Japanese. The Chinese
were too sage. They allowed the Christians to exterminate the
Japanese; but when they attacked us and attempted to rob us of our
land, we merely resorted to our old-time weapon--the Odour-Death.
With it we smothered their armies, sunk their navies, swept through
their countries like the simoon. The awful secret of the
Odour-Death is one that has been ours from the beginning of time.
Known only to the College of Bonzes, it was never used except in
extreme peril. Its smell is more revolting in its consequences than
the Black Plague. It ravaged the earth.
I sat in a flat-bottomed boat, enjoying the soft melancholy Italian
evening. Not a human did I see; nor had I encountered one on my
slow voyage from the Middle Seas. In meditation I pondered the
ultimate wisdom of Confucius and smiled at the folly of the white
barbarians who had tried to show us a new god, a new religion.
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