rice merchants Mhtoon Pah, at the insistence of his friend, became part partner in the increasing destiny of the curio shop.  He travelled for Leh Shin, and brought back wares and stores in days when railways were only just beginning to be heard of, and it was difficult and even dangerous to bring goods across the Shan frontier.  He had the control of a credit trust, though not of actual money, and for a time the partnership prospered.  Mhtoon Pah was always conscious that he was a subordinate depending on the good will of his principal, and even as he ate with cunning into the heart of the fruit, the outside skin showed no trace of his ravages.  Leh Shin’s belief in his friend’s integrity made him careless in the matter of looking into things for himself, and lulled into false security, he dreamed that he prospered; his dream being solidified by the accounts which he received from the Burman.  In the zenith of his affluence he married the daughter of a Burman into whose house Mhtoon Pah had introduced him, and it was only after the wedding festivities that he became aware that he had supplanted the friend of his bosom in the affections of the smiling Burmese girl.  Mhtoon Pah was away on a journey, and on his return rejoiced in the subtle, flattering manner that he knew so well how to practise, and if he felt rancour, he hid it under a smile.

Marriage took the Chinaman’s attention from the shop, and Mhtoon Pah, still a subordinate in the presence of his master, was arrogant and filled with assurance in his dealings with others.  Interested friends warned the Chinaman, but he would not listen to them.  He believed in Mhtoon Pah and he had covered him with gifts.

“Was he not my friend, this monster of infamy?” he wailed, rocking himself on his bed.  “O that I had seen his false heart, and torn it, smoking, from his ribs!”

Leh Shin was secure in his summer of prosperity, and when his son was born he felt that there was no good thing left out of the pleasant ways of life.  In the curio shop in Paradise Street Mhtoon Pah waxed fat and studied the table of returns, and in the garden of the house where Leh Shin lived in his fool’s paradise, the Chinaman loosed his hold upon the reins of authority.

The first sign of the altered and averted faces of the gods was made known to Leh Shin when his wife dwindled and pined and died.

“But that, O friend, was not the work of thine enemy,” said Shiraz, pulling at his beard reflectively.  “Even in thine anger, seek to follow the ways of justice.”

“How do I know it?” replied Leh Shin.  “He ever held an evil wish towards me.  Her death was slow, like unto the approach of disaster.  I know not whence it came, but my heart informs me that Mhtoon Pah designed it.”

Quickly upon the death of his wife came the disappearance of his son.  The boy had been playing in the garden, and the garden had been searched in vain for him.  No trace of the child could be found, though Mangadone was searched from end to end.