“Absalom was to have got a gold lacquer bowl that you ordered from Mhtoon Pah?”

“Quite correct,” laughed Mrs. Wilder with more of her usual manner.  “That old Barabbas has never sent it to me yet, either.  I ordered it a month ago.  I love lacquer because it looks like nothing else, and particularly gold lacquer.”

“Well, all I can tell you is that Absalom had an order from Mhtoon Pah to get the bowl the next morning, if it was to be got, and he went away as usual the night of the twenty-ninth, and never appeared again.  Heath saw him, and you saw him, and that is pretty nearly all the evidence I can collect.”

“Evidence?” Mrs. Wilder’s voice had a piercing note in it.

“Yes, evidence.  You see the only way to trace a man is to find out exactly who saw him last, and where.”

“Ah, I see.  You find out what everyone was doing, and where they were, and you piece the bits in.  It’s like a jig-saw, and how very interesting it must be.”

Hartley laughed.

“Not what the other people were doing exactly, but where they were.  It is something to know that you saw the boy, but I wish you could remember if you saw Heath.”

Mrs. Wilder got up and walked to the window.

“I do hope he will be found.  Did he take my lacquer bowl with him?”

“He had not got it,” said Hartley, in his steady, matter-of-fact voice.

“Are you worried about it?” She turned and looked across the room.  “Why should you be?  If Absalom has chosen to leave, I really don’t see why he shouldn’t be allowed to go in peace.”

“I don’t know that he did choose to leave; that is just the point.”

He was longing to ask her another question about Heath, and yet he did not like to press her.

“Here are some callers,” she remarked, and then, with a short laugh, “I wonder if they were out and about that evening.  If you go on like this, Mr. Hartley, you will make yourself the most popular man in Mangadone.  Take my advice and let Absalom come back in his own way.  Perhaps he is looking for my bowl.”  She turned her head and glanced at some cards that the bearer had brought in on a tray.  “Show the ladies in, Gulab.”

In a few minutes the room was full of voices and laughter, and Mrs. Wilder became unconscious of Hartley.  She remained so unconscious of him that he felt uncomfortable and began to wonder if he had offended her in any way.  He looked at her from time to time, and when he got up to go she gave him her hand as though she was only just sure that he was really there.

The disappearance of Absalom was taking strange shapes in his mind, and he had so far come to the conclusion that Heath knew something about Absalom, and his visit to Mrs. Wilder added the puzzling fact to his mental arithmetic that Mrs. Wilder knew something about Heath.  It was one thing to corner Heath, but Heath standing behind Mrs. Wilder’s protection, became formidable.