"It is?"
"If you pet the head of a friendly dog, the dog will wag its tail, will it not?"
Remo stepped closer. "Usually."
"If you pet the head of a second friendly dog, will that dog also not wag its tail?"
"As a rule, yeah," Remo answered.
"And if you repeat this action with a third friendly dog, what result can you expect?"
"A wagging tail, of course. Maybe a licked hand."
"How many friendly dog heads is it safe to pet before one turns and bites you?"
Remo frowned. "Search me."
Chiun lifted the neatly folded kimono, setting it in the trunk with the green-gold dragons.
"Sometimes it is the fourth dog," he said. "Other times the sixty-fourth dog. However, it has happened that the first dog you pet will bite your hand. That is what is meant by Beware Of Dog. You cannot trust dogs, no matter how friendly. This is true also for some persons." His voice became pointed. "Especially mutts of uncertain parentage."
"Look, I didn't come back for my things."
"You must take them anyway, or they will be set on the sidewalk by those who are soon to dismantle my castle."
"I came back because I missed you."
Chiun started in on another kimono. "Did Smith instruct you to say this to me?"
"No."
"But you admit to speaking to Smith?"
"I was already on my way home when I got tangled up with the police and had to call Smith."
The Master of Sinanju looked thoughtful in a stern way. He didn't glance in Remo's direction. "Did I ever tell you of the time I first ventured beyond the sublime sphere of my poor village, Remo?"
"No," said Remo, toeing his personal tatami mat in front of Chiun. He crossed his ankles preparatory to scissoring down into a comfortable lotus position.
"It is too bad. It was a good story."
"I want to hear it, Little Father."
"Two days ago you did not care to hear the tale of the stonecutter."
"I want to hear that one, too."
"So you say this minute. How do I know if I begin my story your unpredictable personality will not change willy-nilly and you will cruelly cut me off in the middle of my tale?"
Remo raised his right hand and made a solemn sign. "I won't. Scout's honor. I promise."
"You have had an argument with your father in blood?"
"No."
Chiun's hazel eyes flared. "You lie."
"A little argument. We settled it. But I decided to come back here. I don't fit in among the Sun On Jos."
"You have been orphaned and abandoned once more and now you expect me to take you back simply by groveling at my perfect feet."
Remo's face went stiff. "I am not groveling."
Chiun made fluttering motions with his spidery, long-nailed fingers. "Groveling is allowed. You may grovel—not that it will do you any good."
"I am not groveling."
"Groveling will cause me to consider your plight, O abandoned one."
"I won't grovel," Remo said tensely.
Chiun cocked his head to one side."This is your last chance to grovel."
"Not a chance."
"I will settle for a beg."
Remo lifted his sinking shoulders. "Masters of Sinanju do not grovel or beg."
"That is an excellent answer. Now you may sit at my feet, supplicant one."
Remo dropped into place. His eyes sought Chiun's hazel orbs but they avoided his gaze artfully.
"I was eleven years old when my father, Chiun the Elder, took me by the hand and said, 'We are going for a walk.'
"I said, 'Where to, Father?'
"We have business in a minor khanate, and since you are to be Master after me, I will allow you to accompany me on this trifling errand,' said Chiun the Elder. And so we set out on foot along the Silk Road, by which our ancestors for many generations left the Pearl of the Orient to serve emperors and caliphs and kings."
"You went for a stroll on the Silk Road?"
Chiun shrugged carelessly. "It was nothing. A mere seven, perhaps eight hundred of your English miles," he said dismissively.
Remo tried to control his skeptical expression.
Chiun resumed his tale. "Now these were the earliest days of the twentieth century. So early, in fact, that they might have passed for the fading days of the century before. I do not know, since Koreans do not reckon the years as does the West. Many were the wonders I saw on the Silk Road, for the caravans still plied the deserts in those days. I saw dromedaries and Arabian steeds. Mongols, Turks, Chinese and many others wended their way along the Silk Road.