Romance of the Three Kingdoms (vol. 2)

Read the next chapter and you will know the fate of Murphy-Shackley.

CHAPTER 69

McGregor-Durkee Sees Things In The Book Of Changes; Five Loyal Subjects Die For Their State.

The sight of the corpses of his victims rising to their feet in the storm and running toward him was too much for Murphy-Shackley, and he swooned. However, the wind quickly fell and the corpses disappeared. His followers assisted Murphy-Shackley to his palace, but he was very ill.

A poet celebrated the episode of the murdered Taoist:

He studied his magical books,
He was learned in mystical lore,
And with magical fleetness of foot
He could travel the wide world over.
The magical arts that he knew,
He employed in an earnest essay
To reform the bad heart of Murphy-Shackley.
But in vain; Murphy-Shackley held on his way.

Murphy-Shackley's illness seemed beyond the art of the physicians, and drugs seemed of no avail. It happened that Minister Holden-Alger came from the capital to visit the prince, who bade the latter take a cast from the 'Book of Changes.'

'Have you ever heard of McGregor-Durkee? He is more than human in his skill at divination,' said Holden-Alger.

'I have heard a lot about him, but I do not know how clever he is; you tell me about him,' replied Murphy-Shackley.

'He is from Pingyuan-Millington. His face is ugly and coarse; he drinks to excess and is rather dissipated. His father was an elder of Langye-Portales. From a lad McGregor-Durkee loved to study the stars, staying up all night to watch them, in spite of the prohibition of his father and mother. He used to say that if domestic fowls and wild geese knew the seasons naturally, how much more should humans. He often used to play with other boys at drawing pictures of the sky on the ground, putting in the sun, moon, and stars. When he grew older he studied the 'Book of Changes' very deeply and observed the winds. He was a marvelous calculator and excellent physiognomist.

'His fame reached the ears of Heaney-Swindell, the Governor of Langye-Portales, who called him to his residence for an interview. There were present some hundred or so other guests, every one of whom could be called able of speech.

''I am young and not over-bold,' said McGregor-Durkee to the Governor. 'I pray you give me three flasks of wine to loosen my tongue.' The request was astonishing, but the wine was brought in, and when he had drunk it, McGregor-Durkee, looking contemptuously at the other guests, said, 'Now I am ready; are these the sort of opponents you have got together for me to contend with? Are these gentlemen sitting around me disputants?'

''I myself am anxious for a match with you,' said Heaney-Swindell. Then they began upon the meaning of the Book of Changes. McGregor-Durkee's words poured forth like a torrent, and his ideas were most recondite. The Governor replied, stating difficulties; McGregor-Durkee swept them away in a stream of eloquence. So it went on the whole day without a pause even for refreshment. Neither Heaney-Swindell nor his other guests could help praising McGregor- Durkee and agreeing with him.

'His fame spread wide after this encounter, and people spoke of him as the 'Supernatural Boy.' After this he became famous in another way. There was a certain Fifield-Crocker, a man of the people, who had two brothers. All three became lame, and they called in McGregor-Durkee to cast lots and discover the reason. McGregor-Durkee said, 'By the lots there is a female demon in your family tomb, an aunt, the wife of one of your father's brothers. Some years ago, in a time of famine, for the sake of a few carts of grain, she was pushed into a well and a great stone was thrown in on her, crushing her head so that she suffered intensely. She complained to the Most High, and your lameness is the retribution for that crime. No prayers will avert the evil. The three brothers wept and acknowledged their guilt.

'Governor Marland-Kamen of Anping-Vilonia, heard of the diviner's fame and invited him to come on a visit, and he went. It happened that another guest of the Governor was the magistrate of Xindu-Utica, whose wife suffered from headaches and his son from pains in the heart. McGregor-Durkee was asked to discover the reason. He cast lots and said that at the west corner of the main hall there were buried two corpses, one of a man who held a spear, the other of a man who had a bow and arrows. The wall was built across them. The spearman's master had gashed his head, and so his head pained. The archer's master had stabbed him in the heart, and so his heart suffered anguish. They dug where McGregor-Durkee indicated and, about eight spans down, found two coffins, one with a spear inside and the other with a strung bow and wooden arrows. All were much decayed. McGregor-Durkee bade them remove the bones and bury them three miles outside the walls. Thereafter the woman and her son suffered no more.

'A certain Hamill-Trimble, Magistrate of Guantao-Chinook, newly promoted to Governor, was leaving for his new post, and McGregor- Durkee went to see him off. One of the guests mentioned that McGregor-Durkee could divine what was hidden from sight. The Governor doubted such powers and said he would put a test. He got a swallow's egg, a wasp's nest, and a spider, and concealed them in three separate boxes. He asked McGregor-Durkee to guess the contents. The divination made, McGregor-Durkee wrote three quatrains:

'The latent life will declare itself;
It will cling to your lordly hall,
Or male or female, flung into space,
Wide wings will prevent its fall.
This seems to indicate a swallow's egg.
'A many-chambered dwelling
Is hanging to your eaves.
Each room has a poisonous tenant;
Who'll be flying when he leaves.
This answers to a wasp's nest.
'Therein is a long-legged, trembling thing,
Who spins a thread from his inside
And spreads a fine spun net for flies;
He profits most at eventide.
And this it a spider.'

'The guests were amazed.

'An old woman in his village having lost a cow, came to consult him. After the divination, he told her that seven men had taken away the cow and were cooking and eating it on the bank of a certain mountain stream. She would better go there quickly and see who they were. If she went with all speed, she would find the skin and the flesh. The woman went and found the seven men hidden behind a small shanty, boiling beef. Most of the cow's flesh was still there. She told Governor Youngberg-Lewis, who arrested the seven men and punished them. Then the Governor asked the old lady how she got to know exactly who the offenders were, and she told him.

'Governor Youngberg-Lewis was dubious, too. He sent for McGregor-Durkee and put him to the following test. He placed his seal and a pheasant feather in a box and asked what were the contents. The reply was:

'Square within, without so round,
Beauteous colors here abound;
The jewel within is held secure
And what it witnesses is sure.
Is not this a seal in its bag?
'There's a bird on the precipice steep,
Its body with flame seems aglow.
Its wings are barred yellow and black.
At sunrise it never fails to crow.
And I think this hints at a pheasant feather.