The third gate is poetically named the Gate of True
Rapture, and the fourth, the Gate of Gentle Sorrow. I once was
honoured in the friendship of an exalted mandarin who sustained the
course of Joyful Wisdom to the raising of the fifth gate (called the
Gate of Sweet Desires) and the admission of the twentieth rat. I
esteem him almost equally with my ancestors. The sixth, or Gate
Celestial--whereby a man enters into the Joy of Complete
Understanding--I have dispensed with, here, substituting a Japanese
fancy of an antiquity nearly as great and honourable. The introduction
of this element of speculation I count a happy thought, and
accordingly take pride to myself."
"The sword, Petrie!" whispered Smith. I should not have recognized his
voice, but he spoke quite evenly and steadily. "I rely upon you, old
man, to spare me the humiliation of asking mercy from that yellow
fiend!"
My mind throughout this time had been gaining a sort of dreadful
clarity. I had avoided looking at the sword of _kara-kiri_, but my
thoughts had been leading me mercilessly up to the point at which we
were now arrived. No vestige of anger, of condemnation of the inhuman
being seated in the ebony chair, remained; that was past. Of all that
had gone before, and of what was to come in the future, I thought
nothing, knew nothing. Our long fight against the yellow group, our
encounters with the numberless creatures of Fu Manchu, the
dacoits--even Karamaneh--were forgotten, blotted out.
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