"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.