The Pointing Man

d an eye to things himself and who was well served by competent servants. Hartley had reached the age of forty without having married, and he was solid of build and entirely sensible

in this belief, and his personal courage was the courage of the British lio

here. Mrs. Wilder, who knew exactly who to treat with distant condescension and who to ignore entirely, invariably included him in her intimate dinners, and the Chief Commissioner, also a bachelor, invited him frequently and

he sat in his writing-room. It was gloomy there, and the palm trees outside tossed and swayed, and the low mist wraiths down in the valley clung and folded like cotton-wool, hiding the town and covering it up to the ve

gs in a stifled bark. The boy came in answer to his call, carrying the lamp in his hands, and put it down near Hartley, who turned up the wick, a

haking windows, and the evening grew dark early, with the comfortless darkness of rain overhead, when the wheels of a carriage sounded on the damp, sodden gravel outside. Hartley got up and peered through the curtain that

come," he shouted to the boy, and returning to the tea-table, poured out a saucer of milk f

the effect that Mhtoon Pah begged an immediate interv

he curio dealer had a smile and a suave, pleasant manner, but on this occasion all his suavity was gone, and his eyes, usually

waving his hands as he spoke. His story was confused and rambling, but what he to

on a business. Next morning he did not return. It was I who opened the

iries have

ers have searched everywhere. Ah, that I had the body of the man who has don

ed, and he showed h

to suppose that the boy is dead. What reason hav

he Chinese quarter, the streets where men laugh horribly in the dark. Houses there, Thakin, that crawl with yellow m

eous in the way Mhtoon Pah expressed himself that he r

w Absal

watch the street, and had sent Absalom forth upon a business, a private bu

ou must give me some names. Wh

wice before any sound came, a

a hurry, spoke a word to hi

Hea

akin, no

ath, was there anyo

self double in his c

me dark place, and when his blood ran over the floor, and out under the doors, the Chinamen got the

evidence to prove that the boy is murdered. I am sorry for you, Mhtoon Pah, but I warn you t

e was worth nothing at all, except to prove that the boy had left Mhtoon Pah's shop at the time mentioned, and Mhtoon Pah explained that the "private business" was to buy a gold lacquer bowl desired by Mrs. Wilder, who had come to the shop a day or two be

"But Absalom did not return to his home that night. He may have gone to Leh Shin; he w

d I shall investigate the matter. I know Leh Shin, and I consi

o work the subject up carefully under his supervision, and going to the telephone, he communicated the principal facts to the head office, m

omething that he did not like about the weather. It was heavy, oppressive, stifling, and though there was air in plenty, it was th

the banker, was with them, silent, morose, and moody according to his wont, taking no particular notice of anything or anybody. Fitzgibbon, a young Irish barrister-at-law, was talking, and laughing and doing his best to keep the company amused, but he could get no response out of Joicey. Hartley was recei

asked, speaking to the banker.

sently. "It's this infernally st

ght that it might be me. I'm so broke that even m

ggested Hartley, "I've seen ve

oked up a

lly, and Hartley, finishing hi

y came in, the Rev. Francis Heath had the place entirely to himself, and was sitting with a copy of the Saturday Review in his hands. He did not

drawing a chair close to the table. "Can you remember anything at a

ped to pick it up; certainly he found the evening

e twenty

am particularly anxious t

his neck with

e as usual at

something undeniably strained i

I am after too

eath moistened his

s eyes and looking at the ground. "I would not like to make an

ared in as

a man what you want, he sometimes imagines that what he did on another day is what really happened on the actual occasion, and that, as you can imagine, makes our job very

titude, his face pale and

u to be more clear," he

Paradise Street j

have several parishione

e this and looking like this?" H

d, with some sharpness. "As I told you befo

the back of his chair and a s

July the twenty-ninth can in no way affect you. I entirely refuse to be made to

his hand o

going mad; are you dreaming, man? I only want you to help me, and you talk as if I had accus

his chair, looking over Hartley's head,

"who did you see? Did you, for instance, see the

ncis Heath m

ou see

her questions, but since yo

ou saw him again later: I am supposing that you went down the wharf and

uch intensely long duration that when he said the one word, "N

is sleeve-links for

d, getting up, but the Rev.

reluctance, that he had been through Paradise Street, and seen the boy, and his declaration that he had not seen him again did not ring with any real conviction. It made the whole question more interesting, but it made it unpleasant. If things came to light that called the inquiry into court, the Rev. Francis Heath might live to learn that the law has a way of obliging men to speak. If Hartley had ever been sure of anything

al idea. Absalom was missing, and the Rev. Francis Heath had behaved in a way that led him to believe that he knew a g