heavier than the heaviest
night of sleeplessness, and something that was darker than the dark
road, and something that was deep as the brown waters that carried
outgoing craft to sea.

VI

TELLS HOW ATKINS EXPLAINS FACTS BY PEOPLE AND NOT PEOPLE BY FACTS, AND
HOW HARTLEY, HEAD OF THE POLICE, SMELLS THE SCENT OF APPLE ORCHARDS
GROWING IN A FOOL'S PARADISE

Social life went its way in Mangadone much as it had before the 29th of
July, but Hartley was not allowed to rest and feel comfortable and easy
for very long. Mhtoon Pah waylaid him in the dark when he was riding
home from the Club, and waited for him for hours in his bungalow. Like
his own shadow, Mhtoon Pah followed him and dogged his comings and
goings, always with the same imploring tale, but never with any further
evidence. Leh Shin was officially watched, and Leh Shin's assistant was
also under the paternal eye of authority, but all that authority could
discover about him was that he led a gay life, gambled and drugged
himself, hung about evil houses, and had been seen loitering in the
vicinity of the curio shop; but, as Paradise Street was an open
thoroughfare, he had as much right to be there as any leprous beggar.

Hartley's peace of mind was soon shattered again, this time by a new
element that Hartley had not thought of, and so he was caught in another
net without any previous warning.

Atkins, the rector of St. Jude's bungalow companion, was a dry little
man, adhering to simple facts, and neither a sensationalist nor an
alarmist; therefore his words had weight. He was a small man, always
dressed in clothes a little too small, with his whole mind given up to
the subject of his profession; besides which he was religious, a
non-smoker, a teetotaller, and particular upon these points.

Being but little in the habit of going into Mangadone society, he seldom
met Hartley except at the Club, and it was there that he ran him into a
corner and asked for a word or two in private. Hartley took him out into
the dim green space where basket chairs were set at intervals, and
drawing two well away from the others, sat down to listen.

Sweet scents were wafted up on the evening air, and drowsy, dark clouds
followed the moonlike heavy wisps of black cotton-wool, drowning the
light from time to time and then clearing off again; and all over the
grass, glimmering groups of men in white clothes and women in trailing
skirts filled the air with an indistinct mur