The Pointing Man

see in the strange clearness that brings out the stars. Only in the houses of men real darkness has its habitation. Under close roofs, confined within walls, shut

filing up like heavy thoughts and sad thoughts, and casting a gloom

went softly, for sound travels far at night, and Draycott Wilder, in the next room, was a light sleeper. She was thinking

s dreaming evil dreams, and nothing of his surroundings was real to him. The room became another room, the tables and chairs grew indistinct, the face of a small Gaudama on the mantel-piece became a living face that menaced him, and the "chuck-chuck" of the lizards, the rattle of dice falling on to a board at some remote distance miles and miles away, and yet strangely audible to his dull ears. Still he sat there, and flashes of fancies came and went. Sometimes he stood in an English garden, w

m that spun itself in his brain. He wandered in a place so near actual things and yet so far from them, that the gigantic mistake of it all, and the consciousness that the inner life could at times conquer the outer life, made

ight depended upon his hearing steadily. The sound was the one thing that made him know that he was real, and once it ceased, or he ceased to hear it, he would be across the gulf and terrib

ess around him. He could hear whispering voices, and the thump of the Durwan's stick, as that musically-minded man walked round to the back of th

up and calle

is

an's whine was apologet

wants

n, the C

handkerchief and pulled open th

ing to speak naturally.

hat in his hand and stole

ow, Leh

ng habit, and even though he was angry he kept h

to my house, and at night they do not leave it. At one word from the Master, whose speech is constructed of gold

nd his veins standing out on his forehead. "I will see what Mr. Hartley will do, but if y

passively and waited

k the name of the Master, but my doors are locked, my house is a hous

wn heavily on

I will see that there is no more of this poli

still, moving one

ses to me before. Can I be sure that it is n

the boy, and if the boy were found, all search would stop,"-he ey

aps, Ruler and King, the

me that,

ask," said Leh Shin, dropp

s clenched teeth. "And if you come here

would be known as fire is known when the forest is dry. To-morrow or next day, if the po

Joicey, turnin

h a sudden, oblique glance

elephants; the Durwan is now o

loudly, and he clicked off

ng to the shop itself; it dropped its black veil over the green dragons, and the china ladies, and the silver bowls and the little ivories, hiding everything out of sight; but it did not hide the figure outside in the street. The little man, with his pointed headdress and sho

like rooms near the roof, but either up above or down below, the scent of cassia and sandal-wood clung

eavy hours before dawn. He could not have been far; there was hardly any dust on his red velvet slippers, and he brushed what there was from them with a careful hand. As he placed his lamp on the floor

of inspection, he placed an alabaster Buddha in the centre of a carved table and sat down before it. The Buddha was dead white, with a red chain around his neck, and on his head a gold cap with long, gem-set ears hanging to the shoulders, and Mhtoon Pah sat long in front of the fig

with his head close to the teak boarding, and crawled with slow, noiseless care towards the door. A silk curtain covered the window, hiding the interior of the shop from the street, and,

ery feature of the curio dealer's face, changing its brown into a strange, ghastly pallor. For a moment they stood immovable, staring into each other's eyes, and the shadows behind Mhtoon Pah in the shop, and the shadows behind Leh Shin in the street, seemed to listen and wait with them, seemed t

ks of foam on his lips, and his eyes rolled as he dashed through the door and out down the steps, rending the air with cries of murder. He was too

lom," he shrieked, when the crowd had carri

nes of joyful excitement. "A devil with iron

peaking through his clenched teeth. "One

but it is known that a devil has walked in Paradise Stre

growths that climbed up the houses of the Cantonments, and dawn found the Rev. Francis Heath sleeping quietly. He was lying with one arm under his head, and his worn face in almost child-like repose. Wh

e tapping of the laurels outside the church windows, and the musty smell of red rep cushions along the pew where the hours were very slow in passing; the white clover in the field behind the garden, got at easily through a hole in the privet hedge. The play of light and shadow over the hills of home, the dusk at nightfall, and the homely cawing of rooks. All the

he slept, and the outside world grew from grey to green, and from green to misty gold. The sunlight flamed on the spire of the Pagoda, it danced up the brown river and threw long shadows before its coming, those transluc

able, where the unset stones glittered and shone on white velvet, there stood a bowl, a gold lacquer bowl of perfect symmetry and very great beauty. He poised it on his hands once or twice and examined it carefully. As it was already sold it was not to remain in the curio shop, but Mhtoon Pah was a careful man, and he desired that Mrs. Wilder should fetch it herself; besides, he

unworthy of it in his silk petticoat. A ray of sunlight fell in through the door and touched a few threads of gold in the coat as Mhtoon Pah hung it up to good advantage, and turned to see a customer come in. It was the Rev. Fra

for news of Absalom," he said, meeti

ity of his guest, who was, after all, a Hy

"The Reverend himself might know, since th

have sus

s face work

spered. "Look ther

eated befo

lf sent the

nt him and he d

here is my lacquer bowl, Mhtoon Pah?" She came in, bright as the morning o

e, how I know not. I found it outside my shop in the care of

ilder

have to pay for it. But wh

man knew of the bowl, only one man could have put it there. I sh

; you are letting yourself dream foolish things. Absalom"-she tapped the polished floor with her well-shaped

t snakes to sting him," said Mhtoon Pah. "This

lder sh

blacking boots in a New York hotel, weeks ago.-Ah

the school," he

me up the Mandarin's coat, Mhtoon P

a point of taking him in her motor, but he felt instinctively sorry for

ooking at him with her fine eyes; "it would give us grea

ring before him as the car backed round

won't ask you to a function, j

re ver

her, and, when he got out and shut the door, she

an evening later on. It

the same preoccupied voice,

in and again she put the same question to herself, not only that