ugh he were just waking out of sleep, and
then, sitting up on the edge of the bed, he looked into the young man's
face and asked him who he was.

"Oh!" he replied in a friendly way, "I am the son of the old lady who
gave you permission to stay here for the night. For certain reasons, I
am not at all anxious to have strangers about the house, and at first I
very much objected to have you here. But now that I have had a good
look at you, my objections have all vanished. I pride myself upon
being a good judge of character, and I may tell you that I have taken a
fancy to you. But come away with me into the next room, for I am going
to have a little supper, and as my mother tells me that you fell asleep
without having had anything to eat, I have no doubt you will be glad to
join me."

As they sat talking over the meal, they became very friendly and
confidential with each other, and the sam-shu that the son kept
drinking from a tiny cup, into which it was poured from a steaming
kettle, had the effect of loosening his tongue and causing him to speak
more freely than he would otherwise have done.

From his long experience of the shady classes of society, Shih-Kung
very soon discovered what kind of a man his companion was, and felt
that here was a mine from which he might draw valuable information to
help him in reaching the facts he wished to discover.

Looking across the table at the son, whose face was by this time
flushed with the spirit he had been drinking, and with a hasty glance
around the room, as though he were afraid that some one might overhear
him, he said in a low voice, "I want to tell you a great secret. You
have opened your heart a good deal to me, and now I am going to do the
same with you. I am not really a peddler of cloth, as I have pretended
to be. I have been simply using that business to disguise my real
occupation, which I do not want anyone to know."

"And what, may I ask, may be the trade in which you are engaged, and of
which you seem to be so ashamed that you dare not openly confess it?"
asked the son.

"Well, I am what I call a benevolent thief," replied Shih-Kung.

"A benevolent thief!" exclaimed the other in astonishment. "I have
never heard of such a thing before, and I should very much like to know
what is meant by it."

"I must tell you," explained the guest, "that I am not a common thief
who takes the property of others for his own benefit. I never steal
for myself. My prac