"Your foot is wounded," Princess Fragrance said. She

helped her sister remove the boot, and ripped a strip

of material off her gown to bandage the wound. Chen

turned his head away, not daring to look at her bare

feet.* (* In traditional China, feet were considered

one of the most erotic parts of the female anatomy.)

When she had finished the bandaging, Princess

Fragrance looked down at the thousands of wolves

amongst the buildings below, and wagged her finger at

them angrily. "You evil wolves, biting my sister's

foot! I won't feel sorry for you any more," she

scolded them as Chen and Huo Qingtong smiled.

They turned to look into the cave, but all they could

see was pitch-blackness. Huo Qingtong took out her

tinderbox and lit it, and immediately jumped in

fright: they were sitting on a thin ledge and next to

them was a drop of nearly two hundred feet down to the

floor of the cave, which looked even lower than the

ground outside the mountain.

"There has been no fresh air in here for a long time,"

said Chen. "We can't go down yet." After a while, when

he thought most of the stale air would have

dissipated, he said: "I'll go down first to have a

look around."

"Once we're down it won't be easy to get back up

again," said Huo Qingtong.

Chen smiled. "If we can't, we can't," he said. Huo

Qingtong blushed and looked away.

He tied one end of the rope round a rock outcrop and

started to slide down into the abyss, but when he

reached the end of the rope, he was still a hundred

feet from the bottom. Abandoning the rope, he climbed

down the cliff face for a way, and then jumped lightly

to the floor.

"Throw down the tinderbox!" he shouted and Huo

Qingtong did so. He struck a light, and under its

glow, he saw he was in a chamber carved entirely out

of white jade furnished with several sets of wooden

tables and chairs. Chen looked up and saw the two

girls peering down from the ledge, and shouted: "Come

down!"

"You go down first, sister," Huo Qingtong said.

Princess Fragrance took hold of the rope and slid

slowly down to its end. She saw Chen standing beneath

her with his hands opened wide, closed her eyes

tightly and let go. Almost immediately, she felt his

strong arms catch her and place her lightly on the

ground. Huo Qingtong jumped down in the same fashion

and as Chen embraced her, she flushed deep red with

embarrassment.

By now, the howls of the wolves outside the mountain

were becoming faint. Chen looked at their shadows

dancing on the white jade walls, and then at the two

beauties beside him. Under the glow of the reflected

light, they looked even more exquisite. Here they

were, the three of them, in the bowels of a mountain,

not knowing what was in store for them. Of all the

strange things that had happened to him in his

eventful life, this was the strangest.

Chen snapped off a chair leg and lit it with the flame

from the tinder-box. Princess Fragrance exclaimed at

the beauty of the chamber they were in, and taking the

torch from Chen began walking about. He broke off

another seven chair legs and the three began to walk

off along a long tunnel which turned out to be a

cul-de-sac. Chen wondered how they would get out. Then

in a corner of the tunnel, he noticed something

sparkling under the torchlight. He walked over and saw

it was a gold suit of armour containing a pile of old

bones. The suit of armour was exquisitely-made, and

the three marvelled at the fine workmanship.

"He must have been a nobleman," said Princess

Fragrance. Huo Qingtong noticed that there was a

winged camel engraved on the breast plate and added:

"He may even have been the king or a prince. I've

heard that in ancient times, only kings could use

winged camels as their emblem."

"It's the same with the dragon in China," replied

Chen. He took the torch from Princess Fragrance and

began to examine the end wall of the tunnel for some

trace of a door or an opening mechanism. Raising the

torch, he saw a huge ring door knocker with a

long-handled axe lodged in it.

"There's a door," Huo Qingtong exclaimed joyfully.

Chen passed the torch over to her and tried to pull

the axe away, but it had rusted onto the iron ring and

was immovable. He took out his dagger and scraped away

the rust, then with an effort, managed to pull the axe

free. He found it very heavy.

"If this was his weapon, then His Highness was a

strong man," he said with a smile.

On closer examination, they found there was an iron

ring fastened to all four corners of the stone door.

Chen took hold of each of the rings and gave them a

mighty tug, but the door did not move even a fraction.

He tried pushing it instead, and with load squeaks, it

slowly began to swing open. They saw the door was at

least ten feet thick, and in fact was more like a huge

boulder than a door.

The three looked at each other with expressions of

jubilation on their faces. Chen raised the torch high

and with the dagger in his other hand, led the way

through the door. One step inside, something crunched

under his foot, and he saw a pile of bones on the

floor. Looking ahead, there was a narrow tunnel

leading off into the darkness, just big enough for a

person to walk along. Skeletons and swords were

scattered all about them.

Huo Qingtong pointed to the back of the great stone

door. "Look," she said. Under the torchlight they saw

deeply scored lines obviously scratched out with

swords.

"These people must have been locked in here by the

king," said Chen in a startled voice. "They tried the

best they could to get out, but the door was too thick

and the jade rock too solid."

"Even if they had had ten blades as sharp as your

dagger, they would still never have broken through

this door," replied Huo Qingtong.

"They must have considered every alternative, and

finally one by one died as hope faded...."

"Don't! Don't go on," Princess Fragrance pleaded. The

scene was too tragic. She could not bear to hear any

more.

"Why did the king stand guard on the other side of the

door instead of escaping?" Huo Qingtong asked. "I

can't work that out at all." She pulled out the map

and looked at it for a moment. Her face brightened.

"At the end of this tunnel there should be a great

hall and other rooms," she said.

Slowly, they walked forward, treading on human bones

as they went. They turned two corners, and emerged

into a cavernous hall as Huo Qingtong had predicted.

They stood at the entrance and looked about. The floor

of the great hall was filled with skeletons and

weapons lying about at random, evidence that a furious

battle had been fought here.

As they walked into the hall, Chen's dagger suddenly

shot out of his hand and fell to the floor with a

clatter. At the same instant, the belt supporting Huo

Qingtong's sword around her waist snapped, and the

scabbard fell heavily to the floor. The three jumped

in fright. Huo Qingtong bent down to pick up her

sword, but as she did so, the darts in her pocket flew

out with a whoosh and dropped to the ground in the

same manner.

Chen grabbed the two girls and leapt backwards several

paces, steeling himself to defend them against any

attackers. But there was not a sound from the hall. He

wondered what kung fu could snatch the weapons from

their hands and even suck Huo Qingtong's darts from

her pocket.

"We have come only to escape wolves and with no other

purpose," Chen shouted into the darkness in the Muslim

language. "Please forgive us for any indiscretions we

may have committed."

There was no answer but the echo of his own words

returning from the far side of the hall.

As Huo Qingtong's initial fright receded, she walked

forward again and stooped to pick up her sword. But it

was stuck to the floor as if nailed in place. She

tried again using all her strength and managed to free

it, but a second later, it flew out of her hand again

and hit the ground with a clang.

Chen realised what was happening.

"There must be a magnet under here," he said.

"What's a magnet?" asked Huo Qingtong.

"Sailors say there is a big mountain in the far north

which attracts pieces of iron which hang free, making

them point north to south. When they're on the ocean,

they rely on something called a magnetic compass to

find their direction."

"And you think there's another magnet mountain under

here which is attracting our weapons?" asked Huo

Qingtong.

"I think so. Let's try it." He prized up his dagger

and placed it and a wooden chair leg on his left hand

with his right hand on top to hold them in place. When

he took his hand away, the dagger flew to the ground

but the chair leg remained motionless.

"So as you see, the magnet is powerful," said Chen,

picking up the dagger again and gripping it tightly.

Huo Qingtong walked on a few more steps. "Come here!"

she called. Chen ran over and saw a skeleton which was

still standing. A few tattered pieces of clothing hung

on the frame, and its right hand was holding a

white-coloured sword which was stuck into the skeleton

next to it.

"It's a jade sword!" Huo Qingtong exclaimed. Chen

carefully extracted the sword from the skeleton's

grasp, and with its support gone, it collapsed to the

floor in a heap.

The jade sword's blade was very sharp, but it was

still frail enough to shatter if it clashed with a

metal blade. Looking round, they saw there were many

other jade weapons of all sizes lying about the hall.

"I know!" Huo Qingtong suddenly said. "The master of

this mountain certainly planned things very

carefully."

"What?" asked Chen.

"He used this magnet to draw the enemy's weapons away

and then his guards finished them off with the jade

swords."

Princess Fragrance pointed at a skeleton wearing a

metal breast plate. "Look! Some of the attackers were

wearing armour. i'll bet they couldn't get on their

feet."

"But what I don't understand," Huo Qingtong continued,

"is if the guards with the jade weapons killed all the

attackers, why did they also die here as well?"

Chen had also been considering that problem, but could

think of no explanation.

"Let's go further in and explore," said Huo Qingtong.

"No," Princess Fragrance said. "Let's not, sister."

Huo Qingtong saw the anguished expression on her face

and squeezed her arm. "Don't be afraid. Perhaps there

are no skeletons over there."

They walked to the other side of the hall and looked

into a smaller chamber. But the scene there was even

more terrible than in the first hall. Dozens of

skeletons were piled about the room, most of them

still standing as if alive. Some had weapons in their

hands, some didn't.

"Don't touch anything!" said Chen. "There must be some

strange reason for them dying like this." They

continued on, and passed out of the chamber into a

tunnel. After a couple of bends, they came upon a

small swing door. As they pushed it open, their eyes

were assailed by a bright light. Sunlight poured in

from a crack in the ceiling hundreds of feet above

into an excuisite jade room which had obviously been

carved out of the mountain at this spot to take

advantage of the natural lighting.

Although it was only a single shaft of sunlight, the

three were very excited at the sight of it. The room

they found themselves in had a jade bed, a jade table,

jade chairs, all beautifully carved. A skeleton

reclined on the jade bed, while in one corner of the

room, there were two other skeletons, one large and

one small.

Chen extinguished the torch. "We'll rest here," he

said. They pulled out their dry rations and water and

had a small meal.

"I wonder how long the wolves will wait outside the

mountain for us?" said Huo Qingtong. "This has became

a contest between us and the wolves, so we will have

to make the food and water last as long as possible."

For the past several days, Chen and the two sisters

had not had a moment in which they could relax. Now,

in this silent jade room, an immense exhaustion came

over them and before very long, they fell into a deep,

deep sleep.
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