my cloth. The night is fast falling, and I know
not where to spend it, and so I beg of you to take me in. I do not
want charity, for I am quite able to pay you liberally for any trouble
I may cause you; and to-morrow morning, as early as you may desire, I
shall proceed on my wanderings, and you will be relieved of me."

"My good man," she replied, "I am perfectly willing that you should
lodge here for the night, only I am afraid you may have to endure some
annoyance from the conduct of my son when he returns home later in the
evening."

"My business leads me into all kinds of company," he assured her, "and
I meet people with a great variety of dispositions, but I generally
manage to get on with them all. It may be so with your son."

With a good-natured smile, the old lady then showed him into a little
room just off the one which was used as a sitting room. Shih-Kung was
very tired, so he threw himself down, just as he was, on a trestle bed
that stood in the corner, and began to think over his plans for solving
the mystery of the murder. By-and-by he fell fast asleep.

About midnight he woke up at the sound of voices in the next room, and
heard the mother saying:--"I want you to be very careful how you treat
the peddler, and not to use any of your coarse language to him.
Although he looks only a common man, I am sure he is a gentleman, for
he has a refined way with him that shows he must have come from no mean
family. I did not really want to take him in, as I knew you might
object; but the poor man was very tired, and it was getting dark, and
he declared he had no place to go to, so that at last I consented to
let him stay. It is only for the night, and to-morrow at break of day
he says he must be on his travels again."

"I do most strongly dislike having a strange man in the house," replied
a voice which Shih-Kung concluded was the son's; "and I shall go and
have a look at him in order to satisfy myself about him."

Taking a lantern in his hand, he came close up to where Shih-Kung was
lying, and flashing the light upon his face, looked down anxiously at
him for a few moments. Apparently he was satisfied, for he cried out
in a voice that could easily be heard in the other room: "All right,
mother, I am content. The man has a good face, and I do not think I
have anything to fear from him. Let him remain."

Shih-Kung now considered that it was time for him to act. He stretched
himself and yawned as tho