{"product_id":"2940013708945","title":"Spider Tong","description":"It was while he was still far back in the Gorge of the Grasping Fist\u003cbr\u003epasses leading from China into Tibet--that Captain Trouble first heard\u003cbr\u003eof the Spider Tong. The man who told him about it was a Chinese\u003cbr\u003egentleman named Mr. Wang. An elderly gentleman dressed in a long coat\u003cbr\u003eof gray silk, with purple-black silk trousers neatly tied at the\u003cbr\u003eankles over spotless white socks. Then the long hair, one of the old queue,\u003cbr\u003eand a mandarin cap. \"A tsung-ping,\" the captain remarked to himself--\u003cbr\u003emeaning a \"red button.\" It took nerve on the part of a Chinaman\u003cbr\u003enowadays to wear the regalia of the old empire, no matter where he\u003cbr\u003ewas.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd Mr. Wang not only wore the mandarin cap with the red button on it;\u003cbr\u003ethere was a ceremonial fan sticking from the back of his neck.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe himself, Captain Trouble, in such a presence, felt like a tramp. He\u003cbr\u003ewas just returning from the wild Hou-Shan--\"the Country Back of the\u003cbr\u003eMountains,\" meaning this end of Tibet, where, as successor to Kubla\u003cbr\u003eKhan, he was establishing another capital. It had been rough going--\u003cbr\u003eand fighting--more or less all the way. He was dressed in nondescript\u003cbr\u003eriding clothes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eExcept to bathe and shave, which he did every morning, hot or cold,\u003cbr\u003esafe or not safe, he'd hardly been out of his boots for a month.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCaptain Trouble, Shadak Khan, the Fighting Fool; otherwise, Pelham\u003cbr\u003eRutledge Shattuck, of the U. S. A., the rising war lord of China and\u003cbr\u003eperhaps the world.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eExcept for the long clean sword across his knees, there was no sign of\u003cbr\u003eroyalty about him at all. Mr. Wang kept looking at the sword--first at\u003cbr\u003eShattuck, then at the sword.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKubla's sword! Scepter of the Grand Mogul! All Asia was beginning to\u003cbr\u003ewhisper and sing about it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"You risk your life to save mine,\" said Shattuck. \"Why?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The Spider Tong has already bereft me of family and fortune,\" Mr.\u003cbr\u003eWang explained.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThey were speaking the Mandarin dialect, rich in various compliments\u003cbr\u003eunnecessary to report.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"There was a Spider Tong I knew of as a boy,\" said Shattuck. \"The\u003cbr\u003emembers of it put up bamboo scaffolding when my father was building\u003cbr\u003ehis warehouses at Shanghai.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMr. Wang's face gave the hint of a smile. It was like a face carved\u003cbr\u003efrom old ivory; and some of its tone, Shattuck guessed, had been given\u003cbr\u003eit by opium.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"These Spiders,\" said Mr. Wang, \"are different. They also build. But a\u003cbr\u003eweb. In which they catch all who are not spiders. And drain their\u003cbr\u003evictims to an empty husk.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe interview was taking place near the entrance of the Fur Girl Cave,\u003cbr\u003ea vast grotto containing, among other wonders, a boiling spring. The\u003cbr\u003eplace, largely on account of that flow of hot water, was becoming more\u003cbr\u003eand more like home to Shattuck. A home that was huge; and still,\u003cbr\u003eremote from the filth and blood of battle; and also with secret roads\u003cbr\u003ein the Seven Directions--East and West, North and South, Down and Up,\u003cbr\u003eand Nowhere, the direction you take when you die.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShattuck was sitting crosslegged on a pile of saddle-blankets.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom where he sat he could look out of the opening of the cave--as\u003cbr\u003ehigh and wide as a triumphal arch--to a filmy waterfall beyond the\u003cbr\u003egorge, less than a quarter of a mile away. Only when he listened could\u003cbr\u003ehe hear the murmur of the falling water. It was like the hum of a\u003cbr\u003egreat wheel. Long before the water reached the bottom of the gorge it\u003cbr\u003ehad turned to mist.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47180511445232,"sku":"2940013708945","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013708945","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}