t I am a new arrival,
picked up by him at Bombay. Whatever he tells them, they will find him
amusing."

A misty moonlight lighted the garden with a soft, yellow haze, and the
harsh rattling of night beetles sounded unusually loud and noisy in the
silence.

"You said that you had just finished a job?"

"I have, and now I am on leave. The Powers have given me four months,
and I am going to London to hear the Wagner Cycle. I promised myself
that long ago, and unless something very special crops up to prevent me,
I shall start in a week from now."

They took another silent turn.

"Did your last job work out?"

"Yes. It took a long time, but I got back into touch with things I had
begun to forget, and it was interesting. Shall we go back into the
house?"

"Come in here," said Hartley, taking his way into the sitting-room. "I
have some notes in my safe that I want you to look at. The truth is,
Coryndon, I'm tackling rather a nasty business, and if you can help me,
I'll be eternally grateful to you. It has got on my nerves."

Coryndon bowed his head silently and drew up a chair near the table. All
the time that Hartley talked to him, he listened with close attention.
The Head of the Police went into the whole subject at length, telling
the story as it had happened, and leaving out, so far as he knew, no
point that bore upon the question. First he told of the disappearance of
the boy Absalom, the grief and frantic despair of Mhtoon Pah, and his
visit to Hartley in the very room where they sat.

"He was away from the curio shop that night, you say?"

"Yes, at the Pagoda. He is building a shrine there. His statement to me
was that he went away just after dark, and the boy had already left an
hour before."

Coryndon said nothing, but waited for the rest of the story, and, bit by
bit, Hartley set it before him.

"Heath saw Absalom, and admitted it to me," he said, pulling at his
short, red moustache. "Even then he showed a very curious amount of
irritation, and refused to say anything further. Then he lied to me when
I went to the house, and there is Atkins' testimony to the fact that he
is paying a man to keep quiet."

"Has the man reappeared since?"

"Not since I had the house watched."

Coryndon's eyes narrowed and he moved his hands slightly.

"Next there is the very trifling evidence of Mrs. Wilder. It doesn't
count for much, but it goes to prove that she knows something of Heath
which she won't give away