And so saying, he turned and went away.  But in the end, being a man soft of head and heart, when the night was well along he permitted Yi Chin Ho to go.

Straight he went to the Governor, catching him alone and arousing him from his sleep.

“Yi Chin Ho, or I’m no Governor!” cried the Governor.  “What do you here who should be in prison waiting on the chopping-block!”

“I pray your excellency to listen to me,” said Yi Chin Ho, squatting on his hams by the bedside and lighting his pipe from the fire-box.  “A dead man is without value.  It is true, I am as a dead man, without value to the government, to your excellency, or to myself.  But if, so to say, your excellency were to give me my freedom—­”

“Impossible!” cried the Governor.  “Besides, you are condemned to death.”

“Your excellency well knows that if I can repay the ten thousand strings of cash, the government will pardon me,” Yi Chin Ho went on.  “So, as I say, if your excellency were to give me my freedom for a few days, being a man of understanding, I should then repay the government and be in position to be of service to your excellency.  I should be in position to be of very great service to your excellency.”

“Have you a plan whereby you hope to obtain this money?” asked the Governor.

“I have,” said Yi Chin Ho.

“Then come with it to me to-morrow night; I would now sleep,” said the Governor, taking up his snore where it had been interrupted.

On the following night, having again obtained leave of absence from the jailer, Yi Chin Ho presented himself at the Governor’s bedside.

“Is it you, Yi Chin Ho?” asked the Governor.  “And have you the plan?”

“It is I, your excellency,” answered Yi Chin Ho, “and the plan is here.”

“Speak,” commanded the Governor.

“The plan is here,” repeated Yi Chin Ho, “here in my hand.”

The Governor sat up and opened his eyes, Yi Chin Ho proffered in his hand a sheet of paper.  The Governor held it to the light.

“Nothing but a nose,” said he.

“A bit pinched, so, and so, your excellency,” said Yi Chin Ho.

“Yes, a bit pinched here and there, as you say,” said the Governor.

“Withal it is an exceeding corpulent nose, thus, and so, all in one place, at the end,” proceeded Yi Chin Ho.  “Your excellency would seek far and wide and many a day for that nose and find it not.”

“An unusual nose,” admitted the Governor.

“There is a wart upon it,” said Yi Chin Ho.

“A most unusual nose,” said the Governor.  “Never have I seen the like.  But what do you with this nose, Yi Chin Ho!”

“I seek it whereby to repay the money to the government,” said Yi Chin Ho.  “I seek it to be of service to your excellency, and I seek it to save my own worthless head.  Further, I seek your excellency’s seal upon this picture of the nose.”