s, waving his hands as he spoke. His story was confused and
rambling, but what he told was to the effect that his boy, Absalom, had
disappeared and could not be found.

"It was the night of the 29th of July, _Thakin_, and I sent him forth
upon a business. Next morning he did not return. It was I who opened the
shop, it was I who waited upon customers, and Absalom was not there."

"What inquiries have you made?"

"All that may be made, _Thakin_. His mother comes crying to my door, his
brothers have searched everywhere. Ah, that I had the body of the man
who has done this thing, and held him in the sacred tank, to make food
for the fishes."

His dark eyes gleamed, and he showed his teeth like a dog.

"Nonsense, man," said Hartley, quickly. "You seem to suppose that the
boy is dead. What reason have you for imagining that there has been foul
play?"

"_Seem_ to suppose, _Thakin_?" Mhtoon Pah gasped again, like a drowning
man. "And yet the _Thakin_ knows the sewer city, the Chinese quarter,
the streets where men laugh horribly in the dark. Houses there,
_Thakin_, that crawl with yellow men, who are devils, and who split a
man as they would split a fowl--" he broke off, and waved his hands
about wildly.

Hartley felt a little sick; there was something so hideous in the way
Mhtoon Pah expressed himself that he recoiled a step and summoned his
common sense to his aid.

"Who saw Absalom last?"

"Many people must have seen him. I sat myself outside the shop at sunset
to watch the street, and had sent Absalom forth upon a business, a
private business: he was a good boy. Many saw him go out, but no one saw
him return."

"That is no use, Mhtoon Pah; you must give me some names. Who saw the
boy besides yourself?"

Mhtoon Pah opened his mouth twice before any sound came, and he beat his
hands together.

"The Padre Sahib, going in a hurry, spoke a word to him; I saw that with
my eyes."

"Mr. Heath?"

"Yes, _Thakin_, no other."

"And besides Mr. Heath, was there anyone else who saw him?"

Mhtoon Pah bowed himself double in his chair and rocked about.

"The whole street saw him go, but none saw him return, neither will
they. They took Absalom into some dark place, and when his blood ran
over the floor, and out under the doors, the Chinamen got their little
knives, the knives that have long tortoise-shell handles, and very sharp
edges, and then--"

"For God's sake stop talking like that," said Hartley, abruptly. "