accursed thing, O Shiraz. Leave it to Mhtoon Pah, who is a sorcerer and
whose lies mount as high as the topmost pinnacle of the Pagoda." The
Chinaman's lips drew back from his teeth, and he snarled like a dog. "I
will not speak of him to thee, but I would that the face of Mhtoon Pah
was under my heel, and his eyeballs under my thumbs."

"Yet this golden bowl has been in my thought," the voice of Shiraz
flowed on evenly. "And I said that here, in Mangadone, I might find such
an one. Thou art sure that lacquer is accursed to thine eyes, Leh Shin?
That thou hast not such a bowl by thee, neither that thy assistant, when
he seeks the bed for myself and the lesser bed for my friend, could not
look craftily into the shop of this merchant, and ask the price as he
passeth, if so be that Mhtoon Pah has such a bowl to sell?"

Leh Shin spat ferociously.

"There was a bowl, a bowl such as you describe, O servant of Kings, and
I thought to procure it, for word was brought me that Mhtoon Pah had
need of it, and I desired to hold it before him and withdraw it again,
and to inspire his covetousness and rage and then to sell it from my own
hand, but he leagues with devils and his power is great, for, behold,
Honourable Haj, the bowl that was mine was lost by the man from the seas
who was about to sell it to me. Lost, in all truth, and after the lapse
of many days, Mhtoon Pah had it in his shop, and sold it to the Lady
Sahib."

"The hands of a man of wealth are more than two," said Shiraz
oracularly.

"Nay, not so, for all thy learning, Pilgrim from the Shrine of Mahomet.