XXII
IN WHICH CORYNDON HOLDS THE LAST THREAD AND DRAWS IT TIGHT
When Leh Shin opened the shop door and pushed in his grey, gaunt face,he looked around as though wondering in a half-dreamy, half-detachedabstraction where some object he had expected to see had gone. At lengthhis eyes wandered to the Burman, who sat on the ground eyeing him with acuriously intent and concentrated regard.
"Thine assistant hath gone to the river house," he said, answering theunspoken question. "He left me in charge of thy shop and thy goods."
Leh Shin nodded silently and closed the door. When he turned, the Burmanbeckoned to him with a studied suggestion of mystery.
"What is thy message?" asked Leh Shin. He believed the Burman to beafflicted with a madness, and his odd and persistent movement of his armhardly conveyed anything to the drowsy, drugged brain of the Chinaman.
The Burman made no reply, but beckoned again, pointing to the floorbeside him in dumb show, and Leh Shin advanced slowly and took up hisplace on a grass mat a little distance off. Silently, and very softly,the Burman crept near to him, and putting his mouth close to his ear,talked in a rapid, hissing whisper. His words were low, but their effectupon Leh Shin was startling, for he recoiled as though touched by a hotneedle. His hands clutched his clothes, and his whole frame stiffened.Even when he drew away, he listened with avidity as the Burman continuedto pour forth his story.
He had a friend in the household of Hartley Sahib, so he told Leh Shin,a friend who had sensitive ears and had heard much; had heard in factthe whole story of the stained rag, and of Mhtoon Pah's wild appeal forjustice against the Chinaman.
"Well for thee, Leh Shin, that I have a friend in the house of that_Thakin_ who rules the Police. But for him I should not have beeninformed of the plot against thy life, for, 'on this evidence,' saithhe, 'assuredly they will hang the Chinaman, and Mhtoon Pah is witnessagainst him.'"
"Mhtoon Pah, Mhtoon Pah!" said Leh Shin, and he needed to add no cursesto the name, spoken as he said it.
When Coryndon had fully explained that his friend, who was in theservice of Hartley, had not only given him a circumstantial account ofhow the rag was to be used as final and conclusive evidence of LehShin's guilt, but that he had also stolen the rag out of Hartley Sahib'slocked box, to be safely returned to him later, Leh Shin almost tore itfrom between Coryndon's fingers.
"Nay, I cannot deliver it unto thee. My word is pledged. Look closely atit, if thou wilt, but it may not leave my hand or I break my oath."
He held it under the circle of lamplight, and the Chinaman leaned overhis shoulder to look at it. For a long time he examined it carefully,feeling its texture and touching it with light fingers.
Coryndon watched him with some interest. The Chinaman was applying somedefinite test to the silk, known to himself. At last he turned his eyeson the Burman, staring with a gaunt, fierce look that saw many things,and when he spoke his words grated and rattled and his voice was almostbeyond his control.
"See now, O servant of Justice, I am learned in the matter of silks, andwithout doubt this comes surely from but one place."
Again he fell to touching the silk, and his crooked fingers shook as heexplained that the fragment was one he could identify. It was not theproduct of the silk looms of Burma, or Shantung; it could not beprocured even in Japan. It was a rare and special product fashioned bycertain lake-dwellers in the Shan states, and so small was their outputthat it went to no market.
"In one shop only in Mangadone," he said; "nay, in one shop only in thewhole world may such silk be found. Thus, in his craft, hath mine enemyoverreached himself."
"Thou art certain of this?"
"As I am that the sun will rise."
Coryndon looked again at the silk, and sat silently thinking.
"The piece is cut off roughly," he said, after a moment of reflection."Yet, could it be fitted into the space left in the roll, then thou artcleared, and hast just cause against Mhtoon Pah."
"If thy madness comprehends so much, let it carry thee further still, Ostricken and afflicted," said Leh Shin, imploring him with voice andgesture. "Night after night have I stood outside his shop, but who mayenter through a locked door? A breath, a shadow, or a flame, but not aman." He lay on the ground and dug his nails into the floor. "I know theshop from within and without, and I know that the lock opens withdifficulty but to one key, the key that hangs on a chain around the neckof Mhtoon Pah."
Silence fell again as Leh Shin wrestled with the problem that confrontedhim.
"What saidst thou?" said the Burman, suddenly coming to life. "A key?"
He gave a low, chuckling laugh and rocked about in his corner.
"Knowest thou of the story of Shiraz, the Punjabi?"
"I have no mind for tales," said Leh Shin, striking at him with a futileblow of rage.
"Nay, restrain thy wrath, since thou hast spoken of a key. With a keythat was made by sorcery, he was enabled to open the treasure-box of theLady Sahib, and often hath he told me that all doors may be opened byit, large or small. It is not hard for me to take it from under hispillow while he sleeps."
The Chinaman's jaw dropped, and he cast up his hands in muteastonishment. If this was madness, sanity appeared only a doubtfulblessing set beside it. He drew his own wits together, and leaning nearthe Burman laid before him the rough outline of a plan.
Mhtoon Pah's ways were known to him. Usually he went to the Pagoda afterthe shop was closed, and he returned from there late; it was impossibleto be accurate as to the exact hour of his return. To risk detection wasto shatter all chance of success, and it was necessary to make surebefore attempting to break into the shop and identify the silk rag withthe original roll, if that might be done.
There was only one course open to the Burman and Leh Shin, and that wasto wait until there was a _Pwe_ at the Pagoda, which Mhtoon Pah wouldcertainly attend, as his new shrine drew many curious gazers to theTemple. It would also draw the inhabitants of Paradise Street out of thequarter, and leave the place practically deserted. For many reasons itwas necessary to wait such an opportunity, though Leh Shin raved at thedelay. It seemed to him that the whole plan was of his suggesting, andhe did not realize that every vague question put by the Burman led himstep by step to the complicated scheme.
"To-morrow I will send forth my assistant to bring me word of the next_Pwe_, so that the night may be marked in my mind, and that I shall gainpleasure in considering the nearing downfall of my enemy."
Coryndon slipped off to his house. He was tired mentally and physically,but before he slept, he took a bundle of keys from his dispatch-box andtied them to the waist of his _loongyi_.
In the morning there was a fresh surprise for Leh Shin. His assistantrefused to leave the river house, and no persuasion would lure him outto look after his master's shop. He was afraid of something or someone,and he wept and entreated to be left where he was. Leh Shin beat him andtried to drive him out, to no purpose, and in the end he prevailed overhis master, whose mind was occupied with other and more weighty affairs.
Like a black shadow, Leh Shin crept about the streets, and he questionedone and another as to the festivities to be held at the Pagoda.Everywhere he heard of Mhtoon Pah's shrine, and of the great holiness ofthe curio dealer. Mhtoon Pah was giving a feast at the Pagoda withpresents for the priests, and the night chosen was the night of the fullmoon.
"Art thou bidden?" asked one who remembered the day of Leh Shin'sprosperity.
"It is in my thoughts, friend, to make my peace," said Leh Shin, with animmovable face. "On the night when the moon is full, I am minded to doso."
His words were carried back to Mhtoon Pah, who pondered over them,wondering what the Chinaman meant, finding something sinister in thesound that added to his rage against his enemy.
The day of the feast was dark and overcast, and the inhabitants ofParadise Street looked at the sky with great misgiving, but the curiodealer refused to be alarmed.
"The night will be fine, for I h
ave greatly propitiated the _Nats_," hesaid with conviction, and he lolled and smoked in his chair at anearlier hour than was usual with him.
Even as he had said, the evening began to clear, and by sunset the heavyclouds were all dispersed. A red sunset unfolded itself in a scroll offire across the sky, and Mangadone looked as though it was illuminatedby the flames of a conflagration. A strange evening, some said then, andmany said after. Even the pointing man lost his jaundice-yellow andseemed to blush as he pointed up the steps. He had nothing to blush for.His master was at the summit of his power. The _Hypongyis_ lauded himopenly in the streets, and he was giving a feast at the Temple at whichthe poorest would not be forgotten.
Yet Mhtoon Pah was not altogether easy. His eyes rolled strangely fromtime to time, and it was remarked by several that he walked to the endof Paradise Street and looked down the Colonnade of the Chinese quarter,standing there in thought. Old stories of the feud between him and LehShin were recalled in whispers and passed about.
The red of the sunset died out into rose-pink, and the effect of colourin the very air faded and dwindled. People were already dressed out ingala clothing, and streaming towards the Pagoda. The giver of the feastdid not start with them. He sat in his chair, and then withdrew into hisshop. A light travelled from thence to the upper story, and then withslow hesitation, Mhtoon Pah came out by the front of the house andlocked the clamped padlock. He stood still for a few minutes, and thenhe gasped and shook his fist at the empty air, and he, too, took his wayacross the bridge and was lost in the shadows.
Still the stream from Wharf Street and the confluent streets flowed onup Paradise Street, and gradually only the maimed and the aged, or theimpossibly youthful, were left behind, to hear of the wonders afterwardsat secondhand, a secondhand likely to add rather than detract from whatactually took place. Even the Colonnade was empty and silent. Shiraz hadgone with the crowd to see what might be seen, and Leh Shin's assistant,furtive and watchful, and in great terror of the Burman's knife, wasalso in the throng that climbed the Pagoda steps.
The moon that was to have shone on Mhtoon Pah's feast rose in a yellowring, and clouds came up, hazy, gaudy clouds that dimmed its light andmade the shadows in the silent streets dense and heavy. Usually therewas a police guard at the corner where Paradise Street met theColonnade, but that night Hartley considered the police would be morenecessary in the neighbourhood of the Pagoda. Mhtoon Pah did not thinkof this. His conscience was easy, he had propitiated the _Nats_.
The Pagoda was one blaze of light, and a thousand candles flamed beforeevery shrine; even the oldest and most neglected had its ring of light.Small coloured lamps dotted the outlines of some of the booths, and thewhole spectacle presented a moving mass of brilliant colour. Sahibs hadcome there. Hartley Sahib had agreed to appear for half an hour, and hetoo looked at the crowd with curious, travelling eyes. Coryndon might beamong them, and probably was, he thought, but in any case there waslittle chance of his recognizing him if he were.
Mhtoon Pah had not spared magnificent display, and the crowd told eachother that it was indeed a night to remember in Mangadone. Whisperingwinds came out and rang the Temple bells, but even when the breezestrengthened, the rain-clouds held off. It became a matter forcompliment and congratulation, and Mhtoon Pah accepted his friends'flattery without pride. He was a good man, a benefactor, ashrine-builder who followed "the Way" with zeal and fervour, andbesides, he had propitiated _Nats_; _Nats_ who blew up storms, causedearthquakes and were evilly disposed towards men.
Mhtoon Pah would have been at the point where a man's life touchessublimity, but for one thing. The words of Leh Shin echoed in his earsover all the applause and adulation.
"It is in my thought, friend, to make my peace. On the night of the fullmoon I am minded to do so."
The moon riding clear of clouds, shone out over the concourse of men andwomen. Anywhere among them all might be Leh Shin, the needy Chinaman,and gripping his large hands into fists, Mhtoon Pah watched for him andexpected him, but watch as he might, he did not come, neither was thereany sign of him among all the crowd of faces that passed and repassedbefore the new shrine.