iendship that was not
unlike the friendship of any two boys in any quarter of the globe. They
used special knocks upon the door, and when they passed as strangers in
the streets they made masonic signs to one another, and they also
gambled with European cards in off hours.

The desire for money, so strong in the Chinaman, grew gradually in the
mind of the Christian boy, whose descent to Avernus was marked first by
the sale of his Sunday school prize-books, which he disposed of at the
Baptist Mission shop, receiving several rupees in return. Having once
possessed himself of what was wealth to him, and having lost most of it
in the gentlemanly vice of gambling, he began to need more, but being
slow-witted he could think of no way better than robbing Mhtoon Pah,
which suggestion the Chinaman's assistant looked upon as both dangerous
and weak, regarded in the light of a workable plan.

It was inside his bullet-head that the idea of a plot that could not be
discovered came into its first nebulous being. Absalom found out that
Mhtoon Pah was looking for a gold lacquer bowl, and through the agency
of Leh Shin the bowl was eventually marked down as the property of a
seaman who was lodging temporarily near the opium den by the river, one
of Leh Shin's clients. The assistant had the good fortune to overhear
the preliminaries of the sale, and he immediately saw his opportunity,
as genius alone sees and recognizes chances. It was he who first told
Absalom that the bowl was located, and it was he who realized that
chance was beckoning on the adventurer.

It was arranged that Absalom should inform Mhtoon Pah that the coveted
treasure was to be had for a price, and it was also the part of Mr.
Heath's best scholar, to obtain the money from Mhtoon Pah that was to be
paid over to the seaman for the bowl. By this time Absalom's gambling
debts had become a serious question with him, and even a lifelong
mortgage upon his weekly pay could hardly cover his liabilities. Besides
which, he had to live. That painful necessity which dogs the career of
greater men than Absalom.

He appeared to have an almost childish trust in the craft and guile of
his Chinese friend, and set the whole matter before him. Mhtoon Pah was
ready to pay two hundred rupees for the lacquer bowl, as he was already
offered five hundred by Mrs. Wilder, and was content with the profit.
Two hundred rupees was a sum that was essentially worth some risk. To
hand it over to a