The Pointing Man | Page 9

and knew where he had gone in search of the gold lacquer
bowl that was desired by Mrs. Wilder. He made up his mind to see Mrs.
Wilder and ask her about the order for the bowl; but he hardly thought
of her, his mind was full of the mystery that attached itself to the

question of the Rector of St. Jude's parish, and his fierce and angry
refusal to talk reasonably.
He threw open his windows and sat with the air playing on his face,
and his thoughts circled round and round the central idea. Absalom was
missing, and the Rev. Francis Heath had behaved in a way that led him
to believe that he knew a great deal more than he cared to say, and
Hartley brooded over the subject until he grew drowsy and went
upstairs to bed.

III
INDICATES A STANDPOINT COMMONLY SUPPOSED TO
REPRESENT THE PRINCIPLES OF THE JESUIT FATHERS
It was quite early the following morning when Hartley set out to take a
stroll down Paradise Street, and from there to the Chinese quarter,
where Leh Shin had a small shop in a colonnade running east and west.
The houses here were very different to the houses in Paradise Street.
The fronts were brightened with gilt, and green and red paint daubed
the entrances. Almost every third shop was a restaurant, and Hartley
did not care to think of the sort of food that was cooked and eaten
within. Immense lanterns, that turned into coloured moons by night, but
they were pale and dim by day, hung on the cross-beams inside the
houses.
Some half-way down the colonnade, and deep in the odorous gloom,
Leh Shin worked at nothing in particular, and sold devils as Mhtoon
Pah sold them, but without the same success. The door of his shop was
closed, and Hartley rapped upon it several times before he received an
answer; then a bolt was shot back, and Leh Shin's long neck stretched
itself out towards the officer. He was a thin, gaunt figure, lean as the
Plague, and his spare frame was clad in cheap black stuff that hung
around him like the garments of Death itself. Hartley drew back a step,
for the smell of napi and onions is unpleasant even to the strongest of
white men, and told Leh Shin to open the door wide as he wished to

talk to him. Leh Shin, with many owlish blinkings of his narrow eyes,
asked Hartley to come inside. The street was not a good place for
talking, and Hartley followed him into the shop.
It was very dark within, and a dim light fell from high skylight
windows, giving the shop something of the suggestion of a well.
Counters blocked it, making entrance a matter of single file, and, in the
deep gloom at the back, two candles burned before a huge,
ferocious-looking figure depicted on rice-paper and stuck against the
wall. It was hard to believe that it was day outside, so heavy was the
darkness, and it was a few moments before Hartley's eyes became
accustomed to the sudden change. Second-hand clothes hung on pegs
around the room, and all kinds of articles were jumbled together
regardless of their nature. On the floor was a litter of silk and silver
goods, boxes, broken portmanteaux, ropes, baskets, and on the counter
nearest the door a tiny silver cage of beautiful workmanship inhabited
by a tiny golden bird with ruby eyes.
At the back of the shop and near the yellow circle of light thrown by
the candles, was a boy, naked to the waist, and immensely stout and
heavy. His long plait of hair was twisted round and round on his shaven
forehead, and he stood perfectly still, watching the officer out of small
pig eyes. He was chewing something slowly, turning it about and about
inside a small, narrow slit of a mouth, and his whole expression was
cunning and evil. Leh Shin followed Hartley's glance and saw the boy,
and the sight of him seemed to recall him to actual life, for he spoke in
words that sounded like stones knocking together and ordered him out
of the shop. The boy looked at him oddly for a moment; then turned
away, still munching, and lounged out of the room, stopping on the
threshold of a back entrance to take one more look at Hartley.
As a rule Hartley was not affected by the peculiarities of the people he
dealt with, but Leh Shin's assistant impressed him unpleasantly.
Everything he did was offensive, and his whole suggestion loathsome.
Hartley was still thinking of him when he looked at Leh Shin, who
stood blinking before him, awaiting his words patiently.
"Now, Leh Shin, I want to ask you a few