The Pointing Man

by Marjorie Douie

  XXI

  DEMONSTRATES THE PERSUASIVE POWER OF A KNIFE EDGE, AND TELLS A STORY OFA GOLD LACQUER BOWL

  The obese boy sat in Leh Shin's shop, fiddling sometimes with his earsand sometimes with the soles of his bare feet. He found life just alittle dull, and had he been able to express himself as "bored," hewould doubtless have done so. Peeling small dry scales of skin offwear-hardened heels is not the most exciting occupation life affords,and the assistant wished more than once that his master would returnfrom either the gambling den or the Joss House and liberate him for thenight.

  It was his night at the river house, and small opportunities forpilfering from the drugged sleepers made these occasions both amusingand profitable. On the whole he enjoyed the nights in the den, and theyadded considerably to his bank in a box secreted behind the Joss whoflamed and pranced on the wall. Meanwhile, nothing was doing in theshop, and company there was none, unless the cockroaches and the lizardscould be reckoned in that category.

  His master had been shaky and short of temper when he awoke from hisafternoon sleep, and had struck his assistant over the head more thanonce in the course of an argument. Unseen things ticked and rustled indark corners, and the boy yawned loudly and stretched his arms, makinghimself more hideous as his contracted mouth opened to its full oval inhis large round face. Still nothing happened and no one came, and hereturned to the closer examination of a blister that interested him. Heprobed it with a needle, and it indicated its connection with his footby stinging as though he had burnt himself with a match.

  He was seated on a table bending over his horrible employment, halfpastime, half primitive operation, the light of the lamp full upon him,when a sound of padding feet shook the floor and he looked up, his eyesfull of the effort of listening attentively, and saw a face peering inat the door. For a moment he was startled, and then he swung his legs,which hung short of the floor, over the side of the table and laughedout loud.

  "So thou art back, Mountain of Wisdom?" he said jeeringly. "Come withinand tell me of thy journey."

  The Burman crept in stealthily, looking around him.

  "Aye, I am back. Having done the business."

  Curiosity leapt into the eyes of the Chinaman, and he dropped hisattitude of contempt.

  "What business?" he asked greedily. "Before thy departure thou wastmute, stricken as a dumb man, neither wouldst thou speak in response toany question."

  The Burman curled himself up on the floor and smiled complaisantly.

  "None the less, the business is done, O Bowl of Ghee, and I havereturned."

  The assistant ignored the personal description, and adopted a mannercalculated to ingratiate himself into the friendly confidence of the madBurman. He wriggled off the table and crouched on the floor a few inchesoff Coryndon's face, and the contact being too close for humanendurance, Coryndon threw himself back into the corner and retiredbehind a mask of cunning obstinacy.

  "Thy business, thy business," repeated the boy. "Was it in the nature ofthe evil works of the bad man, thy friend?" He leered his encouragement,and fumbling at his belt took out a small coin. "Here, I will give theetwo annas if thou tell the whole story to my liking."

  The Burman shook his head, but he appeared to be considering the offerslowly in his obtuse and stagnant brain.

  "Give the money into mine own hand, that the reward be sure," he said,as though he toyed with the idea.

  "Not so," replied the boy. "First the boiled rice and the salt, andafterwards the payment. Thus is the way in honest dealings."

  The Burman shut his mouth tightly and exhibited signs of a return to hisformer condition of dumbness that worked upon the assistant like gall.

  "Then, if nothing less will content thee, take thy money," he said infrothy anger. "Take it and speak low, for it may be that eavesdroppersare without in the street."

  He dropped the coin into the outstretched palm, but the Burman did notbegin his story. He got up and searched behind boxes and shook the rowsof hanging garments. He was so secret and silent that the boy becameexasperated and closed the narrow door into the street with a bang,pulling across a heavy chain.

  "Let that content thee," he said irritably, chafing under the delay, andsitting down, a frowsy, horrible object, in the dim corner, he preparedto enjoy a further description out of the wild fantastic terrors of themadman's brain.

  Surprise does not hover; its coming events are shadowless, and itsspring is the spring of a tiger out of the dark, and surprise came uponLeh Shin's assistant as it has come upon men and nations since the worldfirst spun in space.

  He looked upon the Burman as a harmless lunatic, and he onlyhalf-believed that he had ever been guilty of the act that had ended ina term of imprisonment in the Andaman Islands, but in one moment herealized that it might all be true and that he himself was possiblysingled out as the next victim.

  In one silent moment he found himself pinned in his corner, the Burmansquatting in front of him, a long knife which he had never seen beforepointing at his throat with horrible, determined persistency.

  He opened his mouth and thought to cry out for help, but the Burmanleaned forward and warned him that if he did so, his last minute hadinevitably come.

  "I am thy friend, thy good and honourable friend," he said pleasantly ashe made play with the Afghan dagger. "I do but make mirth for bothmyself and thee, and I have no thought to harm thee."

  The flesh of the gross body crept and crawled under the Burman's look.Fate had put the heart of a chicken in the huge frame of Leh Shin'sassistant, and it beat now like pelting hail on a frozen road. He wasclose to a raw, naked fear, and it made him shameless as he gibbered andcowered before it.

  "I have no money," he said, bleating out the words. "All that I have isalready paid to thee for thy tale."

  He whined and cringed and writhed in his close corner.

  "I have heard a strange tale," Coryndon said, bending a little closer tohim. "Old now as stale fish that has lain in the dust of the street. Ithas been whispered in my ear that thou knowest how Absalom came to hisend."

  "I slew him in the house of a seaman," said the boy, in a quaveringvoice. "Now take the point of thy knife from my throat, for it dothgreatly inconvenience pleasant speech between thee and me."

  Coryndon's watchful eye detected the lie before it announced itself inwords, or so it seemed to the boy, who resigned himself to the merepaltry limitations of fact, and confessed that he and Absalom had beenfriends and that he had never killed anything except a chicken, and oncea dog that was too young to bite his hand.

  The details of the story came out at long intervals, with breaks ofsweating terror between each one. Pieced together, it was simple enough.In spite of the existing feud between their masters, Leh Shin'sassistant and Absalom had struck up a kind of friendship that was notunlike the friendship of any two boys in any quarter of the globe. Theyused special knocks upon the door, and when they passed as strangers inthe streets they made masonic signs to one another, and they alsogambled with European cards in off hours.

  The desire for money, so strong in the Chinaman, grew gradually in themind of the Christian boy, whose descent to Avernus was marked first bythe sale of his Sunday school prize-books, which he disposed of at theBaptist Mission shop, receiving several rupees in return. Having oncepossessed himself of what was wealth to him, and having lost most of itin the gentlemanly vice of gambling, he began to need more, but beingslow-witted he could think of no way better than robbing Mhtoon Pah,which suggestion the Chinaman's assistant looked upon as both dangerousand weak, regarded in the light of a workable plan.

  It was inside his bullet-head that the idea of a plot that could not bediscovered came into its first nebulous being. Absalom found out thatMhtoon Pah was looking for a gold lacquer bowl, and through the agencyof Leh Shin the bowl was eventually marked down as the property of aseaman who was lodging temporarily near the opium den by the river, oneof Leh Shin's clients. The assistant had the good fortune to overhearthe preliminaries
of the sale, and he immediately saw his opportunity,as genius alone sees and recognizes chances. It was he who first toldAbsalom that the bowl was located, and it was he who realized thatchance was beckoning on the adventurer.

  It was arranged that Absalom should inform Mhtoon Pah that the covetedtreasure was to be had for a price, and it was also the part of Mr.Heath's best scholar, to obtain the money from Mhtoon Pah that was to bepaid over to the seaman for the bowl. By this time Absalom's gamblingdebts had become a serious question with him, and even a lifelongmortgage upon his weekly pay could hardly cover his liabilities. Besideswhich, he had to live. That painful necessity which dogs the career ofgreater men than Absalom.

  He appeared to have an almost childish trust in the craft and guile ofhis Chinese friend, and set the whole matter before him. Mhtoon Pah wasready to pay two hundred rupees for the lacquer bowl, as he was alreadyoffered five hundred by Mrs. Wilder, and was content with the profit.Two hundred rupees was a sum that was essentially worth some risk. Tohand it over to a drunken seaman was against all moral precept. Thesailor's ways were scandalous, his gain would go into evil hands.Treated in this manner, even a Sunday-school graduate could lull anuneasy conscience, and as far as Coryndon could judge, Absalom was nottroubled by any warnings from that silent mentor. Out of the brain ofLeh Shin's assistant the great scheme had leapt full-grown, and it onlyrequired a little careful preparation to put it into action.

  The assistant knew the sailor, a Lascar with a craving for drink, and hebecame friendly with him "out of hours," and learned his ways and thetimes when he was likely to be in the house where he lodged. The sailor,having come to know that value was attached to his bowl, guarded it withavaricious care when in a condition to do so; and Leh Shin, who trustedhis assistant, through whom the news of the deal had first come to hisear, offered the man fifty rupees for what he had merely stolen from ashop in Pekin. It took the assistant a full week to arrange events sothat he and Absalom could work together for the moral good of thesailor, and protect him from the snares of lucre, represented by a thirdof the money Leh Shin expected to receive.

  He dwelt with some pride upon the fact, and his vanity in thisparticular almost conquered his fear of the Afghan blade that stillnestled close to his bull neck. He had drunk in friendship with thesailor, dropping a drug into his cup, and waiting till his eyes grew dimand he fell forward in a heavy sleep. But even in the moment ofachievement his wits were worth more than the wits of Absalom, for heran out of the house and established an alibi while the Christian boyfilched the bowl from beneath the bed of the intoxicated sailor. At agiven hour he waited for Absalom just where Heath had stood after hehad parted from Rydal, and so chance played twice into his hands in onenight. Absalom, who appeared to have imbibed some rudimentary principlesof honour among thieves, passed the boy his share, which was a hundredand twenty rupees, including his debts of honour, and having done so,sped away into the night, the bowl under his arm.

  "And that is all the story," said the boy, beating his hands on thefloor, and returning from the momentary forgetfulness of the narrativeto the immediate fear of the knife. "Further than that, I know nothing.The hour is late and if I am not at the river house I shall feel thewrath of my master."

  "It is a poor tale, a paltry tale," said the Burman, in tones ofdisgust. "One that hardly requites me for my patience in hearing itout."

  He slipped his knife back into his belt and got up from his heels with aleisurely movement. The boy, still on all fours, watched him closely,and the Burman, his eye attracted by a bright tin kettle hanging amongthe other goods dependent from the ceiling, stood looking at it, and ashe looked the boy dodged out with a rush, overturning a bale of goods,and tearing at the door like a mad dog, disappeared into the street.

  Coryndon watched him go, and went back to his corner to wait until LehShin should return from either the gambling den or the Joss House. Hehad something to say to Leh Shin, something that could not wait to besaid, and he composed himself to the necessary patience that is part ofall close, careful search, and while he waited, he turned over theevidence that had arisen from the little clue that Joicey had given him.Absalom had a parcel under his arm, and that parcel was the gold lacquerbowl that had passed from Mhtoon Pah's curio shop to Mrs. Wilder'swriting-table.

  Coryndon fiddled with his fingers in the dust of the floor, and took ablood-stained rag out of his pocket and spread it over his knee. Herewas another tangible piece of evidence brought by Mhtoon Pah to Hartley.So the record of circumstance closed in. Coryndon thought again. Alacquer bowl and a stained rag of silk, that was all. If he handed overthe case to Hartley and Mhtoon Pah was really guilty, other evidencewould in all probability be found, and the whole mystery made clear.

  He leaned against the wall and watched the throbbing lamp-wick, fightinghis passion for completed work and his conviction that only he could seeit through to its ultimate conclusion. He knew that he was dealing withwits quite as crafty as his own, and argued the point from the otherside. Mhtoon Pah had given the rag himself to Hartley, and had swornthat the bowl was left on the steps of his shop. If no further proof wasforthcoming, these two facts unsupported were almost worthless. Unless acomplete denial of his story could be set against it, Hartley stood tobe checkmated.

  Coryndon had nearly decided against Leh Shin. He drew his knees up underhis chin and came to a definite conclusion. He could not give up thecase as it stood; he was absolved from any hint of professionaljealousy, and he could count himself free to follow the evidence untilit led him irrevocably to the spot where the whole detail was clear anddefinite.

  All the faces of the men who had figured in the drama floated across hismind, and he thought of the strange key that turned in the lock of onesmall trivial destiny, opening other doors as if by magic. Absalom'slife or death had no outward connection with the Head of the MangadoneBanking Firm, it had nothing in all its days to bring it into touch withRydal and Rydal's tragedy--Rydal whom Coryndon had never seen. It layapart, severed by race and every possible accident of birth or chance,from the successful wife of a successful Civil Servant, or an earnest,hard-working clergyman, and yet the great net of Destiny had been spreadon that night of the 29th of July, and every one of them had fallen intoits meshes.

  All the immense problem of the plan that so decides the current of men'slives came over him, and he saw the limitless value of the insignificantin life. Absalom was only a little floating piece of jetsam on the greatwaters that divided all these lives, yet he was the factor that hadtaken the place of the keystone in the arch; the pivot around which theforce that guided and ruled the whole apparent chaos had moved. Coryndonwandered a long way in his thoughts from the shop where he sat on thedusty floor, waiting for the return of Leh Shin. He was so still thatthe cockroaches and black-beetles crept out again and formed intomarauding expeditions where the shadows of the hanging clothes felldark.

  He turned himself from the pressure of his thought and closed his eyes,resting his brain in a quiet pool of untroubled silence. He knew theneed and the art of absolute relaxation from the strain of thought, andthough he did not sleep, he looked as though he slept, until he heardthe sound of approaching feet and a hand pushed against the door.