It was the first serious doubt that Ruhannah had ever entertained in
her brief career.
That night she dreamed of the Yellow Devil in Herr Wilner's box, and,
awaking, remembered her dream. It seemed odd, too, because she had not
even thought of the Yellow Devil for over a year.
But the menacing Mongol figure seemed bound to intrude into her life
once more and demand her attention as though resentful of long
oblivion and neglect; for, a week later, an old missionary from
Indo-China--a native Chinese--who had lectured at the Baptist Church
in Gayfield the evening previous, came to pay his respects to the
Reverend Wilbour Carew. And Rue had taken the Yellow Devil from the
olive-wood box that day and was busily making a pencil drawing of it.
At sight of the figure the native missionary's narrow almond eyes
opened extremely wide, and he leaned on the table and regarded the
bronze demon very intently.
Then he took from his pocket and adjusted to his button nose a pair of
large, horn spectacles; and he carefully examined the Chinese
characters engraved on the base of the ancient bronze, following them
slowly with a yellow and clawlike forefinger.
"Can you read what is written there?" inquired the Reverend Mr.
Carew.
"Yes, brother. This is what is written: 'I am Erlik, Ruler of Chaos
and of All that Was. The old order passes when I arrive. I bring
confusion among the peoples; I hurl down emperors; kingdoms crumble
where I pass; the world begins to rock and tip, spilling nations into
outer darkness. When there are no more kingdoms and no more kings; no
more empires and no emperors; and when only the humble till, the
blameless sow, the pure reap; and when only the teachers teach in the
shadow of the Tree, and when the Thinker sits unstirring under the
high stars, then, from the dark edges of the world I let go my grasp
and drop into those immeasurable deeps from which I came--I, Erlik,
Ruler of All that Was.'"
After a silence the Reverend Mr. Carew asked whether the figure was a
very old one.
"It is before the period called 'Han'--a dynasty during which the
Mongols were a mighty people. This inscription is Mongol. Erlik was
the Yellow Devil of the Mongols."
"Not a heathen god, then?"
"No, a heathen devil. Their Prince of Darkness."
Ruhannah, pencil in hand, looked curiously at this heathen Prince of
Darkness, arrived out of the dark ages to sit to her for his scowling
portrait.
"I wonder what he thinks of America," she said, partly to herself.