The Pointing Man

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

discover about him was that he led a gay life, gambled and drugged himself, hung about evil houses, and had been seen loitering in th

e by a new element that Hartley had not thought of, and so

an alarmist; therefore his words had weight. He was a small man, always dressed in clothes a little too small, with his whole mind giv

s there that he ran him into a corner and asked for a word or two in private. Hartley took him out into the dim gr

k cotton-wool, drowning the light from time to time and then clearing off again; and all over the grass, glimmeri

h a crowing sound, "that what I have to say is said strictly in a priva

, but he said nothing, and Atkins dropped h

ere are illnesses of the mind as well as of the body, and Heath was mind-sick. I am a lig

n," sugges

the sound of voices that awoke me. It is no business of mine to pry or to talk, and I would say nothing if it were not that I admire a

as the

nored the

n low voices, but I heard Heath say, 'I will not endure it, I am bearing too much already.' I think he

ley. "Tell me exac

ard the sound of feet go along it-bare feet, mind you,

the same nature ha

s hands with hi

nd left Heath reading a theological book in the veranda. I said, I remember, 'I'm absolutely beat, Padré; I have had enough to-day to give me nine or ten hours without stirring,' and he looked up and said, 'Don't complain of t

r explained

ver asked

ce was hardly above a whisper, and

room is at the far end from mine, and I stood there, shivering like a leaf out of sheer jumps. I had a regular 'night attack' feeling over me. I heard a chair pushed back, and I heard Heath say in a low voice 'If you come here again, or if you dog me again, I'll hand you over to the police,' and the man laughed. I can't describe his laugh; it was the most dam

Hartley's voice was angry. "You've got a p

Some devil of a native is blackmailing him, and Heath is one of the best and straightest men I know. Not one it

as for your opinion of Heath-well, it strikes me as curious

t people by facts," said Atkin

artley, slowly. "He behaved very oddly, lately, when I asked him a simple question, and he chose to refu

t is quite absurd." Atkins got up and terminated the interview. "It is absurd to talk of suspicion," he said again, irritably. "I hope y

ce, and Hartley sat alone, watching the moonlight and thinking his own thoughts. He was i

ou seeing ghosts or moon spirits? You certainly g

Well, as a matter of fact, I was not

voice was very s

can, I a

ttle intimate gesture, and he

, I would ask you to advise me, and to tell me what to do, before I would go t

were I would tell you, but I can't tell you, because what I

and she lifted her slightly

e anything, Mr. Hartley, except just the name of the person concerned. I'm ver

artley, laughing. "I was thinking of the Padré,

s. Wilder's eyes, or perhaps Hartley might have found a c

n the Middle Ages. I won't ask you why you are thinking about him"-she got up and lingered a little, and Hartley rose also-"but you know that you should not think of anyone u

with myself," said Hartley

noiselessly, as is the way of good cars, and he put her in with the manner of a jeweller putting a precious diamond

rful thing. He called her a "sweet woman" in his mind, and it was almost a pity that Mrs. Wilder did not know, because her sense of humour was subtle and acute, and she would have thoroughly

finitely as Hartley had been thinking as he watched the moonlight playing hide-and-seek with the shadows of the palm branches and the darkness of the trees, and her thoughts left no pleasant look upon her face or

there is finality in the air. Hartley was built for platonics; Fate gave him the necessary touch of the commonpla

r seemed to expect it from him, but as he walked along the road he began to find that her manner had of late altered considerably. She

over him to a nicety, and she knew of his secret desire for "situations," because her instinct was never at fault; but she felt nothing more than contempt, slightly charged with pity towards him. Hartley was a good-natured, idiotic man, and Hartley had pr

ruthful when she said that he had suggested Heath to her mind, and that sh

en more clearly before her eyes, and could hardly have drawn her mind more strongly, and

, and wherever it eventually brought her. No one could picture her flinching or turning back along a road she had set out to follow; if it had run