ance with Leh Shin, the Chinaman, worming his way
into his confidence and encouraging him to speak fully of the old hatred
that was still like live fire between him and the wealthy curio dealer.
Revenge may or may not take the shape and substance of the original
wrong done, and the limited intelligence of the Chinaman would suggest
payment in the same coin, so it was necessary for Coryndon to know the
actual facts of the ancient grudge. Further than this, Shiraz was to go
to the shop of Mhtoon Pah, and discover anything he could in the course
of conversation with the Burman.

"Mark well all that is said, that when I return it may be disclosed to
mine eyes through thy spectacles," he concluded, tying the ragged ends
of his head-scarf over his forehead.

He went down the staircase with a slow, dragging step, leaning on the
rail of the Colonnade when he got out into the street, and halting, with
a vacant stare, outside the shop of Leh Shin.

"So thy devils have not yet caught thee and scalded thee with oil, or
burned thee in quicklime?" jeered the boy, as he watched a coolie sweep
out the shop.

He was chewing a raw onion, and he swung his legs idly, for there was
nothing to do, and, on the whole, he was glad to have the mad Burman to
bait for half an hour's entertainment.

"The sickness is heavy upon me, my legs are loaded as with wet sand, and
my mouth is parched like a rock in the desert," whined the Burman
plaintively.

"Nay, nay, not _thy_ legs, and _thy_ tongue. The legs and the mouth of
the evil man, thy friend, O dolt."

The Burman shook his head stupidly.

"The will of the Holy Ones is that I shall recover, and my friend has
said that I shall go a journey. I go by the terrain this night at
sunset."

"Whither doth he send thee, unclean one?"

The Burman smiled with a sudden look of cunning.

"That is a word unspoken, and neither will I tell it. Thy desire to know
what concerns thee not is as great as thy fatness."

With a doggedness that is often part of some forms of mania, the Burman
squatted in the dust, and under no provocation could he be induced to
speak. After midday he indicated by lifting his fingers to his mouth
that he intended to go in search of food; having worked Leh Shin's
assistant into a state of perspiring wrath by the simple process of
reiterating in pantomime that he was dumb. It must be admitted that
Coryndon got no small amount of pleasure out of his morning's
entertainment, an