The Crimson Azaleas E-Book

H. De Vere

• Herausgeber: Youcanprint
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

Henry De Vere Stacpoole (9 April 1863 – 12 April 1951) was an Irish author, born in Ireland in Kingstown (now Dún Laoghaire). His best known work is the 1908 romance novel The Blue Lagoon, which has been adapted to film on at least four occasions. He published using his own name and sometimes the pseudonym Tyler De Saix. After a brief career as a ship's doctor, which took him to numerous exotic locations in the South Pacific Ocean, later used in his fiction, he became a full-time writer, able to live comfortably after the success of The Blue Lagoon.

Leseprobe

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART ONE - THE TRAGEDY OF THE NIKKO ROAD

I. The Road to Nikko

II. The Blind One

III. The Lost One

IV. Amidst the Hills

V. TheTea House of the Tortoise

VI. The Dreamer and the Dragon

VII. How Campanula Brought Fortune to the House of the Tortoise—and Other Things

VIII. The Surprising Story of Momotaro—Akudogi and Spotted Dog

IX. The House of the Clouds

X. Of Mousmès and Other Things

PART TWO - THE MASSACRE OF THE BLUE-BELLS

XI. The Dream

XII. The Foreign Devils

XIII. The Monastery Garden

XIV. Nagasaki by Night

XV.M'Gourley's Love Affair

XVI.The Philosophy of Evil

XVII.The House by Night

XVIII.Mostly about Flowers

XIX.The Stork and the Tortoise

XX.The Song of the Mushi

XXI. M'Gourley's Love Affair

XXII. The Complete Geographer

XXIII. The Struggle

XXIV. George Du Telle

XXV. Retrospection

PART THREE - THEBROKEN LATH

XXVI. The Broken Lath

XXVII. The "Empress of Japan"

XXVIII. M'Gourley's Love Affair

XXIX. The Garden-Party

XXX. The False Report

XXXI. Farewell

XXXII. Her House in Order

XXXIII. The "La France"

XXXIV. Amidst the Azaleas

XXXV. Bon Matsuri

THE CRIMSON AZALEAS

by

H. De Vere

Edition 2018 by David De Angelis - all rights reserved

PART ONE

THE TRAGEDY OF THE NIKKO ROAD

CHAPTER I

THE ROAD TO NIKKO

"Upon the road to Nikko,

Where the pilgrims pray,

Along the road to Nikko

Either side the way,

Thundering great camellia trees

Decked with blossoms gay,

Adorn the road to Nikko,

The mountainroad to Nikko,

In the month of May."

The singer stopped singing and began to whistle. Then he brokeout into prose.

"Damn boots! I'll be lame in another mile. Why can't we becontent with sandals like our 'brithers' the Japs!"

"Dinna damn boots, but theirmakers," replied his companion, asandy Scot of fifty or more, dressed in broadcloth and a bowler, afigure at once a blot upon the lonely road and a blasphemy againstJapan—a blot whose name was M'Gourley. "I vara well rememberwhen I was in Gleska—"

"Oh, don't!" said the poet of the Nikko road, Dick Leslie byname, a young man, or rather a man still young, very tall,straight, dark, and good-looking, and a gentleman from the crown ofhis close-clipped, curly black head to the soles of the boots thatweretorturing him. "Don't haul up your factory chimneys, your smokeand whisky bottles in this place of places. I believe if a Scotever gets into heaven he'll start his first conversation with hisfirst angel by making some reference to Gleska: Look there!"

"Whaur?"

"There!" cried Leslie, turning from the direction of Fubasamiand the beginning of the great Nikko valley before them, andpointing backwards away towards Kureise over an expanse of distantcountry where the clouds were drawing soft shadows acrossthe ricefields and the sinuous hills; over little woods of fir andcryptomeria trees, lakes where the lotus flowers spread in summer,and the king-fisher flashed like a jewel; over occasional fields offlowers, flowers that grew by the million and the million.

Many of these details were absorbed and dulled by distance, yetstill lent their spirit to the scene, producing a landscape moststrange and quaint.

Nearly every other country seems flung together bynature, butJapan seems to have been imagined bysome great artist of theancient days—imagined and constructed.

"Look there," said Leslie, "saw you ever anything better thanthat in Clackmannan?"

"Ay, have I," replied M'Gourley, contemplating the view beforehim, "many's the time. What sort of countrydo you call that? Man!I'd as soon live on a tea-tray if I had ma choice."

"Well, you've lived in Japan long enough to be used to it. It'salways the way; put a man in a paradise like this where there areall sorts of flowers and jolly things around him, and he startsgrumbling and growling and pining after rain, and misery, and cold,and sleet, and peat smoke—if he's a Scotchman. How long haveyou been in Japan, Mac, did you say?"

"Near ever since the Samurai took off their swords and turnedpolicemen."

"What kept you in the East so long if you don't like it?"

"Trade, like the wind, blaweth where it listeth, and a man muste'en follow his trade," said M'Gourley; and they resumed theirroad.

They were walking to Nikko together, this strangely assortedpair,strangely assorted though they were bothScotchmen. They wereapproaching the place, not by that splendid avenue of cryptomeriatrees that leads from Utso-no-Miya, but by the wild hill road,which runs from Kureise, or rather by the higher hill road,forthere are two, and they had taken the loneliest and the longestby mistake (M'Gourley's fault, though he swore that he knew thecountry like the palm of his hand).

They had come twenty or twenty-five miles of the way by riksha,and were now hoofing the remainder, their luggage having been senton to Nikko by train.

"And talking of trade," said M'Gourley, "let's go back to thematter we were on a moment ago; there's money in it, and I know thebeesiness. I ken it fine; never a man knows better the Jap Rubbishtrade."

"You were talking of starting at Nagasaki."

"Ay, Nagasaki's best."

"Well, I'll plank the money," said Leslie. "I'll put up athousand against a thousand of yours."

M'Gourley stopped and held out a hand sheathed in amournful-looking black dogskinglove.

"Is't a bargain?" said he.

"It's a bargain. Funny that we should have only met the otherday in Tokyo, and that you should have come along to Nikko to showme the sights. I believe all the time you were bent on trepanningme into this business."

"I was that," said M'Gourley, with charming frankness; "for yourown good. A man without a beesiness is a man astray, and when youtold me in the hotel in Tokyo you were a boddie with money, andnothing to do with it, I said: 'Here's my chance.'"

"If I hadmet you two months ago," said Leslie bitterly, "Iwouldn't have been much use, for my father would not have beendead, and I would not have come into his money. Do you know what Ihave been?—I have been a remittance man."

"I've met vera much worse people than some ofthem," said Mac,who if his newly found partner had declared himself a demon out ofHades would perhaps have made the same glossatory remark—thecapital being assured.

"I'm hanged if I have," said Leslie bitterly. "Give me a SydneyLarrikin, aDago, a Chinee, before your remittance man. I know whatI'm talking about for I have been one—see?"

"What, may I ask—" began M'Gourley, then he paused.

"You mean what was the reason of my being flung off by myfather? Youthful indiscretions. Let's sit down; I want to take myboot off."

The road just here took a bend, and became wilderand morelovely, a stream gushed from the bank on which they took theirseats, and before them lay a little valley, a valley hedged oneither side by cypress trees, and thronged with crimsonazaleas.

CHAPTER II

THE BLIND ONE

Crimson azaleas in wild profusion, here struck with sun, hereshadowed by the cypress trees—a sight to gladden the heart ofa poet. Between the cypress trees, beyond the azaleas, beyondcountry brokenby sunlight and cloud shadows, lay the sea hills ofTanagura in the dimmest bluest distance.

"If I could get that into a gold frame," said Leslie, as heinhaled the delicious perfume of the azaleas and bathed his nakedfoot in the tiny cascade breaking from the bank on which they sat,"I'd take it to London and send it to the Academy—and they'dreject it."

"Vara likely," replied Mac. "It is no fit for a peecture. Whoever saw the like of yon out of Japan? It's nought but afakement."

"I say," said Leslie, "talking of fakements—in thisbusiness of ours I hope we'll steer clear of all that."

"In this beesiness of oors," said Mac, "I thoughtyou distinctlyunderstood my friend Danjuro will be the nominal head of thefirrm—we are but the sleeping pairtners."

Mac's Scotch bubbled in him when he grew excited, or when heforgot himself. Ordinarily he talked pretty ordinary English, butwhen the stopper was off the Scotch came out, and you could tell bythe pronunciation of the word "money" whether he was mentioningthearticle casually or deep in a deal.

"Well," said Leslie, "I don't want my dreams troubled by visionsof Danjuro swindling unfortunate tourists; you say we're to exportthings, but I don't want to have him roping in people, selling themfive-shilling pagodas at five pounds a-piece."

Mac sighed as if with regret at the impossibility of such adelightful deal as that.

"It's rather jolly going into business," continued Leslie,dreamily gazing at the azaleas. "Only crime I've never committed,except murderand a few others. Good God! when I started in life Inever thought I'd end my days peddling paper lanterns, and cheatingpeople into buying penny-a-dozen kakemonos for a shilling a-piece.Don't talk to me; all trade is cheating."

"You should have known Macbean," said M'Gourley, who had alsotaken off his boots and stockings andwas bathing his broad splayfeet in the pretty little torrent.

"Who was he?"

"Forty year ago I was his 'prentice. Mummies, and idols, andpagods, and scarabeuses was the output of the firm, and IcknieldStreet, Birmingham, its habitation."

"Idols?"

"Ay, idols. Some the size of your thumb, and some the size ofbedposts, which they were derived from; some with teeth, and somewith hair, and some bald as a bannock. We stocked half WestAfricawith idols, and the South Seas absorbed the balance."

"Well, you certainly take the cake," said Leslie.

"I took three pun ten a week at Macbean's, and learnt moreeelementary theology than's taught in the schules of Edinboro'.Macbean said artistical idols was what the savages wanted, and whatthey would get as long as old bedposteses were to be bought atknockdown prices, and sold for the waurth of elephants' tusks."

"You disgust me," said Leslie, "upon my word you do."

"That's what Macbean said oneday to the boddie I had in mindwhen I began telling you of this. The boddie came in grumblingabout a mummy—a vara fine mummy it was, too—that hadbeen sold to him for export.The mummy had been stuftit withnewspapers, but thesachrum ustumused for coloring the stuffingmatter being omitted, the printed matter remained in eevidence whenthe American who bought the article in Cairo opened it to hunt foramulets and scarabeuses. 'Newspapers!' said Macbean. 'And what moredo you expect in a fifty-shullin'mummy? Did y' expect it stuffedwi' dimonds?'"

"Well?" said Leslie.

"That's all, and that's the whole of beesiness in a walnutshell; y' canna expect a fifty-shullin' mummy to be stuffedwith—"

"Rubbish! the whole of swindling, you mean. Anyhow, we'll keepstraight, if you please; a fair profit I don't mind, but I objectto rank trickery—by the way, what's the time? my watch hasstopped; and how far is Nikko off?"

"It's after two," said Mac, who had no very definite idea of howfar Nikko might be off, having led his companion by the wrong roadand concealed the fact. "And Nikko is maybe twarree miles, maybe abit more—wull we go?"

For all answer Leslie took some bar-chocolate from his pocket,gave some to his companion, and proceeded to lunch.

"I daresay you think it funny," said he at last, "my chummingup, and in your heart of hearts—that is, your business heart(excuse me for being frank)—you must think it strange Ishould put up my money with a man whom I don't know in the least.But, man!the truth of the matter is I'm weary for a friend. I havemoney enough and to spare, but—I'm weary for a friend.

"I'm the lonest man in the world," went on Leslie, munching hischocolate and gazing at the beautiful scene before him; "the lonestman on God's earth. What is the matter with me that I should neverhave found and kept a friend? If God had ever given me anything tolove I'd have cherished it, but—there is no God that I cansee."

"Whisht, man," said Mac. "Dinna talk like that."

"I know I was wild," went on Leslie, "before I left England, butother men have been as bad. I quarreled with my father, but othermen's fathers are different from what mine was. He drove me beyondthe sea to be an alien and an outcast. I've seen drunken loafers inthe barsof Sydney, where I was stuck as a remittance man threeyears; they had friends of a sort—friends who stuck them, butfriend or dog never stuck to me."

"No wumman?" asked M'Gourley, spitting out theremains of thechocolate he was eating, and lighting a vile-looking Hankowcigar.

"I loved a woman once," said Leslie, staring before him witheyes that saw not Japan or the cypress trees or the azaleas. "Hername was Jane Deering; we were boy and girl together, cousins, andher people lived quite close to mine.We got engaged, and were tohave been married, and—she threw me over."

"For why?" asked Mac.

"Said she didn't want to get married."

"Well, that was deefinite."

"Damned definite. What's that noise?"

"Tap, tap, tap." It was the tapping of a stick upon the ground,and a man in the dress of a coolie, with a saucer-shaped hat uponhis head, turned the corner of the road, coming in the direction ofNikko. He was tapping the ground before him with a staff. He wasblind.

"What an awful-looking face!" said Leslie,as the figureapproached. "Look, Mac! Did you ever see the like of that?"

One sees many extraordinary and sinister faces in the East, butthe face of the on-comer would have been hard to match, even in thestews of Shanghai.

The nose seemed to have been smashed flat by a blow.The face wasflat and possessed an awful stolidity, so that at a little distanceone could have sworn that it was carved from stone. It impressedone as the countenance of a creature long in communion withevil.

The two Scotchmen held motionless to let this undesirable pass,but he must have possessed some sixth sense, for instead of passinghe stopped and begun to whine.

He spoke in a light, flighty, chanting voice, like the voice ofa man either insane or delirious.

"What's he say?"asked Leslie.

"He's a Chinee, and wants money."

"Tell the beast to go."

"Says he knows we're foreigners."

"Clever that; why, even I can hear your Scotch sticking out ofthe gibberish you're talking."

"Says he wants opium—hasn't had any the whole day, andifwe will give him opium, or money to buy it, he'll show usthings."

"What things?"

"Lord sakes! the creeture's daft; says he can make greatmagic—snakes out of mud or flowers out of nothing."

"Why doesn't he make some opium if he's so clever?"

"Says thewoods around here are full of devils."

"Tell him to show us a devil, then."

Mac translated and the person so well acquainted with devilsmade answer.

"For a piece of gold he will show us one. Why, Leslie, man,don't you be a fule."

Leslie had taken half asovereign from his pocket.

"Give it him and tell him to show us a devil, and if he playsany tricks I'll chivy him into Nikko, and give him up to thepolice."

"Don't be a fule," said Mac testily. "A'weel!"

Leslie put the piece of gold into the creature'shand, who put itto his ear for a moment, and then hid it in his rags. Then he benthis head sideways to the road.

"What's he doing now?"

"He's listening if the road's clear; he says there's nothing onit for two ri on either side, but he hears seven rikshas coming inthe direction of Nikko, but he'll have time to do what he wantsbefore they arrive."

The Blind One bent down rapidly and traced an almost perfectcircle around himself in the dust of the road; then hurriedlyoutside this he traced what an initiate might have taken for theform of the Egg, the horns of Simara, and another form needless todescribe. Then he said something to Mac.

"He says, we're not to speak, or touch the circle orgo near it.I have not paid for this entertainment, and I juistthink I'll takea bit walk doon the road."

"Sit down, you old coward," said Leslie. "I'm the one that haspaid, and I'm the one the 'deevil' will carry off if there is adeevil. Look!"

The Blind One took from his rags a cane pipe such as blind menuse inJapan, only larger, and began to blow mournful notes out ofit. It was as strange a sound as ever left human lips, nowear-piercing, now low, low and soothing; his face flushed andswelled; he seemed enraptured, entranced with his own music, andthe searching sound of it caused things to move disturbedly in thetrees around, and a low croaking, as if from some featheredcreature disturbed, to come from the cypress wood.

As he played, he turned north, south, east, and west, lingering,at last, with the reedpipe pointing between the cypress trees, asthough he were calling to the blue hills in the distance.

As he stood thus, Leslie, who had been looking at the mysterioussymbols around the circle, was seized with an impish impulse, andleaning forward with his walking-stick, he made in the dust insidethe circle, and just behind the Blind One's heel, the form of across.

In doing this, the point of the stick touched the Blind One'sheel.

CHAPTER III

THE LOST ONE

A congreve rocket incautiously touched by a match could not havegiven a more surprising result.

Flinging the pipe from him with a yell, the Blind One sprangclear over the circle, and stood for an instant panting and blowingat the sun.

He seemed blowing away things that were trying to enter hismouth; then, the staff attached by a thong to his wrist flyingabout wildly, he began to tear at himself all over his body andfling things away from him, as though he were attacked by a hundredthousand scorpions; then as if bitten by some more serious enemy,he seized his staff, and striking about him wildly, began to run.Hither and thither, hitting right and left, dashing against treesand seeming utterly regardless of them, bleeding, torn, and all thetime fighting his phantom pursuers he ran till he vanished roundthe bend leading towards Nikko. The two Scotchmen ran to the bendofthe road, and there down the road they saw him still running, andfighting as if for his life; striking above him as if at things inthe air, and around him as if at things leaping at him from theground. Suddenly he vanished round a further bend, and was lost toview.

"He's gone gyte!" said Mac as they returned.

"Well, I'm damned!" said Leslie.

"I touched his heel, and I suppose he thought it was one of thedevils—mad fool!"

"'Tis no madness," said Mac. "If ever I saw a man chased bydeevils I've seen one now. 'Twas that mark you made let them loose,or my name's not Tod M'Gourley. Did you no ken you were makin' thesign of the cross in yon damned circle of his? Hech,man!Lookthere!"

"Where?"

"My God!" said M'Gourley, "look you there,there! There's a bairnamongst the azaleas!"

"So there is!" said Leslie. "By Jove, a little Jap girl come outof the wood."

"Dom it, man," roared M'Gourley, "she wasn't there twarreeseconds ago. She's come out of no wood; she's beenfetched."

"Well, of all the superstitious idiots!" said Leslie, gazingfrom the perspiring M'Gourley to the figure ofthe quaint and prettylittle Japanese girl who was busy amidst the azaleas plucking theblossoms. "Why, it wouldn't take her more than 'twarree seconds' tocome out of the wood. Anyhow, I'll go and see if she's real."

"Man! man! hauld back!" cried the agonized M'Gourley as hispartner plunged amidst the bushes. "Ye'll be had; she's a bogle.Lord's sake! Lord's sake! Well, gang your own gate, I'm off toNikko."

Yet he waited.

The bogle was plucking blossoms as hard as she could and in theprofuse manner of childhood. She and the azaleas made a sight forsore eyes.

She might have been seven or eight, dressed in a blue kimonowith a scarlet obi, hair black as ebony shavings, tightly drawn offthe forehead and held up with a tortoiseshell comb—the "germof a woman."

Her back was turned toLeslie, and as he got within arm's lengthof the quaint and delicious little figure he did just what you or Imight have done—bent down, seized her up, and kissed her.

The bogle dropped her flowers and gave a shriek, a mostdistinctly human shriek.

"He'skessed her!" cried M'Gourley, addressing the azaleas, thecypress trees, and all Japan.

Then he stood in agony, held to the spot by the sight of Leslieand the bogle making friends.

It didn't seem to take long, for presently he returned throughthe azaleas triumphant, carrying her in his arms.

"Here's your bogle," said he, placing her on the dusty roadwhere, with all the gravity of the Japanese child, she made a deepobeisance to M'Gourley. That gentleman returned the compliment witha short, sharp nod.

"I'm awa' to Nikko," said he in the hard, irritable voice of aperson who is desirous of avoiding an undesirable acquaintance,gazing at Leslie and steadily ignoring the lady in blue who was nowholding on to Leslie's right leg, contemplating M'Gourley,andsucking the tip of a taper and tiny forefinger all at the sametime. "I'm awa' to Nikko. 'Tis no place for a mon like me. Neverwas I used to the company of fules—"

"Don't be an ass! Speak to her; you have the tongue, and Ihaven't."

"I winna."

"Well, ofall the old women I ever met," said Leslie, addressinga "thundering great camellia tree" that stood opposite, "thispartner of mine takes the bun!—don't he, Popsums?" bendingdown and looking into thesmall face, the left cheek of which wasnow resting against his knee.

Popsums, in reply to the smile and interrogative tone in thequestion she did not understand, smiled gravely back and murmuredsomething that sounded like "Hei."

M'Gourley snorted, and Leslie broke out laughing; he had littleof the Japanese, but he knew that "Hei" meant "Yes."

CHAPTER IV

AMIDST THE HILLS

Just then a ripple of laughter came down the breeze, and roundthe corner of the road, heading for Nikko, came at full trot sevenrikshas streaming out like a scarf of color; a dreamofcolor—for each riksha contained a lady most beautiful tobehold under the splendor of her umbrella.

They were a party of girls returning to Nikko after some sylvanfreak, and they drew up as if by common assent to admire theazaleas.

Leslie, removing hishat and lifting his treasure trove, held herup for exhibition.

The girls laughed and spoke to her; had they been English girlsshe would have been promptly handed round and kissed; and she, withbecoming gravity, replied gracefully in a few half-lispedwords.

Then, leaving behind them on the air a cloud of dust, a perfumeof camellia oil, and a long drawn "Sayonara," the bevy of beautiespassed in a gorgeous flight ofmixed colors round the bend of theroad and were gone.

"Ye mind he said seven rikshaswere coming," cried Mac.

"Bother!" answered Leslie. "He'd come the same direction andpassed them. Do you think they'd have laughed and spoken to her ifthere was anything wrong and they're Japs, and ought to know. Come!buck up, man! You're not afraid todo what a girl has done?"

"A'weel!" said M'Gourley, half ashamed of himself; and dour asany Procurator Fiscal, he set to the examination of the being whowas now on the ground again, her hand clasped in that ofLeslie.

This was the result of the examination. Deponent lived with herfather. Where? She did not know.—Just beyond there somewhere.What was the house like she lived in? It had a plum-tree growingbefore it. What did her father do? He hammered things with ahammer. Had she any brothers and sisters? No; but—suddenthought—she had a sugar-candy dragon, and she had lost it.(Here deponent wept slightly and with reserve.)

Pause in the interrogations whilst a snub nose was wiped withLeslie's pocket handkerchief.

And a kite, but that was at home. She had gone that day with alittle boy—a neighbor—to hunt for the saccharinedragon, and they had lost themselves, then theyhad lost each other,thenshehad lost herself. How was that possible? Well, she had goneto sleep. Where? In the wood.

Here the examinate went off into a tale about an impossibletom-cat with wings, which she had once seen on an umbrella, andbeheld once again in the wood, but was suppressed by the court andasked to keep to facts.

Whilst asleep inthe wood she was awakened, so she declared, by asound like the passage of a flight of storks, and, coming out ofthe wood, fearful of meeting a dragon, she began to pick the prettyflowers; then she was seized by the honorable gentleman, whoseheight wasgreater than a poplar tree.

How old was she? Eight times the cherry blossom had blown sinceher humble self had come into the world.

Then she volunteered the entirely unsolicited statement that itwas likely her little boy companion had been lost in the snow. Butthat was impossible—well, it was a field of liliesthen—and he had been most possibly devoured by a dragon.

What did she propose about going home? Did she know the way, andcould she go alone?

Here she declared herself utterly at a loss. Her homewassomewhere near by, but where, she could not exactly say.

"Well, well!" said M'Gourley, when he had finished hisexamination. "It seems to me that bogle or no bogle you've saddledyoursel' wi' a lost child. Whaur's your common sense now?"

"Just where it always was.—Question is—what are weto do? Canyousuggest anything?"

"Na, na! it's not for me to say," said the other, with that vilesense of satisfaction a brither Scot feels when a brither Scot hasmade a cubby of himself. Then, remembering the bondof partnership,"If I were the party responsible, I'd just pop her back where Ifund her first, and rin."

"Well, youarea beast! Why, you benighted old mummy-stuffer, Ibelieve you've got a scarab in your bosom instead of a heart! I'lltake her along to Nikko, and get the police to hunt out her home.Stay, we haven't asked her what's her name."

Indice

Table of Contents

THE CRIMSON AZALEAS

PART ONE

CHAPTER I

CHAPTER II

CHAPTER III

CHAPTER IV

CHAPTER V

CHAPTER VI

CHAPTER VII

CHAPTER VIII

CHAPTER IX

CHAPTER X

PART TWO

CHAPTER XI

CHAPTER XII

CHAPTER XIII

CHAPTER XIV

CHAPTER XV

CHAPTER XVI

CHAPTER XVII

CHAPTER XVIII

CHAPTER XIX

CHAPTER XX

CHAPTER XXI

CHAPTER XXII

CHAPTER XXIII

CHAPTER XXIV

CHAPTER XXV

PART THREE

CHAPTER XXVI

CHAPTER XXVII

CHAPTER XXVIII

CHAPTER XXIX

CHAPTER XXX

CHAPTER XXXI

CHAPTER XXXII

CHAPTER XXXIII

CHAPTER XXXIV

CHAPTER XXXV