Page:Henry rideout--The siamese cat.djvu/152

 night came a Luk-chin man with such a stone as you have never seen—large, perfect as the Dragon's Pearl, red as the blood of doves. I lay on the roof, as always, and moving a certain tile, saw down into the room behind the shop, where the three squatted by the lamp.

"The Luk-chin thief would not loose that stone from his hand.

"'Ten thousand ticals,' he said. He breathed like a man in great fear. And it was worth seven times ten thousand.

"'This is neither Phai-lin nor Krat,' whispered my master. 'This is Burmah.'

"The Luk-chin swore it was Phai-lin, by five generations of his fathers.

"'It is Burmah,' said my master softly; 'and this man is a stranger here.'

"Bolkoman knew the fulness of that saying, and reached swiftly and caught the Luk-chin by the throat, and so killed him without