總鑽風 Chief Borer Of The Wind
即轉身,插下手,將尾巴梢兒的小毫毛拔下一根,捻他把,叫:「變!」即變做個金漆牌兒,也穿上個綠絨繩兒,上書三個真字,乃「總鑽風」。拿出來,遞與他看了。即转身,插下手,将尾巴梢儿的小毫毛拔下一根,捻他把,叫:「变!」即变做个金漆牌儿,也穿上个绿绒绳儿,上书三个真字,乃「总钻风」。拿出来,递与他看了。
逐句解 Line by line
He turned away at once, put his hand behind him, pulled a small fine hair from the very tip of his tail, gave it a twist and called, "Change!"
尾巴梢兒 is the very end of the tail, and 尾巴 takes an unstressed second syllable without any help — the corpus agrees at all five of its sealed sites. 小毫毛 is the fine down rather than a proper hair. One word of command again, as with the staff.
It turned into a gilt-lacquered tally, threaded on a green silk cord too, with three plain characters written on it: Chief Borer of the Wind.
綠絨繩兒 — green, where the other man's was simply a twist of silk. The forgery is not a copy but an improvement, and 總鑽風 promotes the borer to a chief. One character added to a title he saw thirty seconds ago.
He brought it out and handed it over for the demon to see.
Eight characters of narration with no quotation to close, which is why they stand as their own segment rather than folding backward. The transaction is completed in the flattest possible language.
The forgery is made from a hair off his own tail, which is how Pilgrim makes most things, and it takes one word.
What makes it good is that it is not a duplicate. A second Little Borer of the Wind would be one name too many on a list of four hundred; a Chief Borer of the Wind is not on the list at all, and cannot be checked against it.
The green cord is the detail that gives the game away and also sells it. A superior grade would naturally have different fittings — Pilgrim has invented not just a rank but the insignia that would go with it.