ing it about and
about inside a small, narrow slit of a mouth, and his whole expression
was cunning and evil. Leh Shin followed Hartley's glance and saw the
boy, and the sight of him seemed to recall him to actual life, for he
spoke in words that sounded like stones knocking together and ordered
him out of the shop. The boy looked at him oddly for a moment; then
turned away, still munching, and lounged out of the room, stopping on
the threshold of a back entrance to take one more look at Hartley.

As a rule Hartley was not affected by the peculiarities of the people he
dealt with, but Leh Shin's assistant impressed him unpleasantly.
Everything he did was offensive, and his whole suggestion loathsome.
Hartley was still thinking of him when he looked at Leh Shin, who stood
blinking before him, awaiting his words patiently.

"Now, Leh Shin, I want to ask you a few questions. Do you sell lacquer
in this shop?"

The Chinaman indicated that he sold anything that anyone would buy.

"Do you happen to know that Mhtoon Pah was looking for a bowl of gold
lacquer, and that he sent his boy Absalom here to get it?"

Leh Shin shook his head. He was a poor man, and he knew nothing.
Moreover, he knew nothing of July the twenty-ninth, he did not count
days. He had not seen the boy Absalom.

"Let me advise you to be truthful, Leh Shin," said Hartley. "You may be
called upon to give an account of yourself on the evening and night of
July the twenty-ninth."

Leh Shin looked stolidly at the mildewed clothes and tried to remember,
but he failed to be explicit, and the greasy, obese creature, still
chewing, was recalled to assist his master's memory. He spoke in a high
chirping voice, and looked at Hartley with angry eyes as he asserted
that his master had been ill upon the evening mentioned and that he had
closed the shop early, and that he himself had gone to the nautch house
to witness a dance that had lasted until morning.

"You can prove what you say, I suppose," said Hartley, speaking to Leh
Shin, "and satisfy me that the boy Absalom was not here, and did not
come here?"

Leh Shin, moved to sudden life, protested that he could prove it, that
he could call half Hong Kong Street to prove it.

"I don't want Hong Kong Street. I want a creditable witness," said
Hartley, and he turned to go. "So far as I know, you are an honest
dealer, Leh Shin, and I am quite ready to believe, if you can help me,
that you were ill that night, but