Free Cat Country by Lao She Page A

than I could take. Ever since I can remember, I have always detested anyone who would rely on the prestige and power of a foreigner to hoodwink his own people. I walked in towards the beach, and Scorpion started walking forward again too. When I was fifteen or twenty yards from him, I picked up my revolver from the rock on which I had left it, and began closing in on him.

THE PROFIT MOTIVE
    I SEIZED Scorpion. He smiled. In fact I had never seen him smile so wide before. The madder I got, the more he smiled. It seemed that the Cat People kept their paltry stock of smiles solely in order to avoid beatings. I asked him what he meant by gathering all these Cat People to watch me bathe. He didn’t say anything, but just kept on smiling as ingratiatingly as he could. I knew that he was up to something, but I was too sick of that wretched look of his to bother finding out what it was. I simply told him, ‘If you ever do anything like this again, watch out for your scalp!’
    The next day I went to the river as usual. Before I had even arrived at the beach, I was conscious of a blackish mass in the distance. There were even more of them than yesterday! I decided to go along with my bath as if nothing had happened in order to see what they were up to; I could always give Scorpion a working over when I got back. The sun came out. I stood in a shallow place, pretending to be totally wrapped up in splashing in the water, but secretly watching the Cat People at the same time. Before long, Scorpion appeared, leading another cat-man who was carrying what appeared to be a pile of reverie leaves in both arms stacked up hard against his chin. I saw them walking along the line of cat-men. First Scorpion would put out his hand, and then the cat-man following him would extend his. I noticed that the stack of reverie leaves he held in his arms was gradually diminishing. So that was it – Scorpion was taking advantage of the gathering to sell a few reverie leaves! He had, no doubt, jacked up the price in honour of the occasion.
    Now, I am a man who has some sense of humour; but a moment’s anger will cause even a person like myself to go to extremes. I well knew how afraid the cat-men were of me, simply because I was a foreigner. I also knew that this whole ridiculous spectacle was undoubtedly the handiwork of Scorpion alone, and it was by no means my original intention to cause harm to this innocent group of spectators just to punish Scorpion. However, at the time, my fury caused me to forget all considerations of benevolence. I’d simply have to give Scorpion a taste of my strength, otherwise I should never again be able to enjoy my morning exercise in peace. Now, if the cat-men had also wanted to come for a swim in the morning, then of course there would be nothing that I could say. The river was not my exclusive possession. But to have one man swim while several hundred others stood around watching, and then to have someone come along and take advantage of the gathering to do business – well, that was more than I could take!
    I decided not to grab Scorpion first, for I knew that he wouldn’t tell me the truth anyway. The only way I could get to the bottom of all this would be to capture one of the spectators. I started easing my way towards the river bank, keeping my back to them so as not to make them jumpy. Once I got to the shore, it would be a matter of a hundred-yard dash and then I could catch one of them off guard.
    No sooner had I reached the bank and turned around than I heard a most baleful cry – a cry even more pitiful than that made by a pig being slaughtered. My hundred-yard dash began. Ahead of me, it was as though an earthquake had suddenly occurred. Each of the spectators seemed torn between the desire to scatter in order to escape with his own life, and the desire to group together for security. Some ran; some fell; some forgot to run; and others fell down and tried to scramble back up again. In the twinkling of an