Short Stories
A NOSE FOR THE KING
by Jack Lo nd on
In the morning calm of Korea, when its peace and tranquillity
truly merited its ancient name, "Cho-sen," there lived a politician
by name Yi Chin Ho. He was a man of parts, and—who shall
say?—perhaps in no wise worse than politicians the world over.
But, unlike his brethren in other lands, Yi Chin Ho was in jail.
Not that he had inadvertently diverted to himself public mon-
eys, but that he had inadvertently diverted too much. Excess is
to be deplored in all things, even in grafting, and Yi Chin Ho's
excess had brought him to most deplorable straits.
Ten thousand strings of cash he owed the government, and
he lay in prison under sentence of death. There was one ad-
vantage to the situation—he had plenty of time in which to
think. And he thought well. Then called he the jailer to him.
"Most worthy man, you see before you one most wretched,"
he began. "Yet all will be well with me if you will but let me go
free for one short hour this night. And all will be well with you,
for I shall see to your advancement through the years, and you
shall come at length to the directorship of all the prisons of Cho-
sen."
"How, now?" demanded the jailer. "What foolishness is this?
One short hour, and you but waiting for your head to be
chopped off! And I, with an aged and much-to-be-respected
mother, not to say anything of a wife and several children of ten-
der years! Out upon you for the scoundrel that you are!"
"From the Sacred City to the ends of all the Eight Coasts
there is no place for me to hide," Yi Chin Ho made reply. "I am a
man of wisdom, but of what worth my wisdom here in prison?
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