Page:Henry rideout--The siamese cat.djvu/109

 can hardly shut my own fist. Fourth, Borkman's story is improbable. If an unknown person—a second thief, an accomplice—fought and killed the coolie, then why leave behind the only apparent cause of quarrel—the cat—perched on the wall? But he may have heard Borkman coming, or have seen him, and cut and run. After all, that seems the most likely way; for Borkman could have no accomplice stationed out there to do the killing, no such weapon to do it with himself. Fifth, if Borkman were the murderer, then his remark—'I saw directly by Miss Holborow's face'—was made when off his guard, and explains why he reported to the Dane. Humph!

"If there had been a weapon," thought the young man, "I'd be certain: or if it were any thing but a cat—"

Muffled hammering at doors sounded in the distance, and the raucous singsong cry of a