eye to the hole.

There inside was a candle burning on a stand, and Tiki-pu squatting with
paint-pots and brush in front of Wio-Wani's last masterpiece.

"What fine piece of burglary is this?" thought he; "what serpent have I been
harbouring in my bosom? Is this beast of a grub of a boy thinking to make
himself a painter and cut me out of my reputation and prosperity?" For even at
that distance he could perceive plainly that the work of this boy went head
and shoulders beyond his, or that of any painter then living.

Presently Wio-wani opened his door and came down the path, as was his habit
now each night, to call Tiki-pu to his lesson. He advanced to the front of his
picture and beckoned for Tiki-pu to come in with him; and Tiki-pu's master
grew clammy at the knees as he beheld Tiki-pu catch hold of Wio-wani's hand
and jump into the picture, and skip up the green path by Wio-wani's side, and
in through the little door that Wio-wani had painted so beautifully in the end
wall of his palace!

For a time Tiki-pu's master stood glued to the spot with grief and horror.
"Oh, you deadly little underling! Oh, you poisonous little caretaker, you
parasite, you vampire, you fly in amber!" cried he, "is that where you get
your training? Is it there that you dare to go trespassing; into a picture
that I purchased for my own pleasure and profit, and not at all for yours?
Very soon we will see whom it really belongs to!"

He ripped out the paper of the largest window-pane and pushed his way through
into the studio. Then in great haste he took up paint-pot and brush, and
sacrilegiously set himself to work upon Wio-wani's last masterpiece. In the
place of the doorway by which Tiki-pu had entered he painted a solid brick