lful conquest of such a pilgrim, so earnest, so
adorable, and so appropriately concerned. The lady, he gathered, was
praying for a husband....

He smiled, and when he turned his glance it encountered the eyes of the
headman of Apyodaw, who had entered noiselessly at his side and who now
stood between him and the entrance.

"I knew I should find thee, Shway Cloots."

It said something for Cloots that he did not cease smiling all at once,
that he gave no outward sign, and that he was able to answer quite soon
and quite steadily in the same dialect.

"Hast been looking for me, Moung Poh Sin?"

"I did not have to look, Shway. It was written."

"Hast been waiting for me, then?"

"It was written I would have to wait."

"Was it also written that I had become any safe or easy game to track
into a corner?" demanded Cloots.

"I did not track thee."

"Half an hour ago I left the docks, newly landed from Moulmein. No man
could have given thee word of my return. No man knew if ever I should
return."

"I knew."

"By that I mark thee a liar and a fool, Moung Poh Sin, for I knew it not
myself. I see now thou hast been watching and spying for me. By the
harbor, or by the pagoda here, belike. A long vigil.... But it can
profit nothing. What could it profit thee? I am not the kind to be
followed and hunted down."

"I tell thee, Shway, I did not follow at all. At the appointed time I
came and thou wert here. The talk and all things else come in their
order."

"So and so. And what else is to come, thinkest thou?"

"At sunset to-day," said the other quietly, "at big-bell time, I am to
slay thee in this chapel under the Slanted Beam."...

Cloots loosened his collar. He had had a bit of a start. He had been
surprised into rather nervous speech. But he recovered himself. Merely
he was aware of a slight oppression, due, no doubt, to the scented fumes
in this inclosed space. Also, he took occasion in lowering his hand to
run one finger lightly down the front of his green twill shooting jacket
so that the buttons were slipped and the lapels left open. "Art mad?" he
inquired. "What babble is this, Moung Poh Sin?" he rasped abruptly.
"Stand away from that door, dog! Remove--stand off!"

But Moung Poh Sin did not budge.

* * * * *

Now, there are ways and ways of regarding the native within the areas of
white empery. As a sort of inferior and obedient jinn, supplied by
Providence and invoked by