THE SIAMESE CAT
coolie, sleeping in the dust, scowled upward, with the shadowed sockets of a death's-head, into the pale radiance. Now and then a pedlar's bell clanked faintly; a gust of laughter told where sea-captains drank late under the almond trees; or breaking the charm of stillness, a lizard cried: "To-kay! to-kay!" in a voice dogmatic and hiccoughing.
"I can't believe him," thought Scarlett. "He seemed plausible there in the boat, but—" Instinct declared the man a liar; reason tried to marshal the facts both for and against him:
"First of all, Borkman suggested buying the cat. That proves nothing, either way. Second, he knew the thief before—bumped him in the bazaar—and was not glad to see him. Third, grabbing the coolie by the queue, as he ran, would rip his hand exactly as it was ripped. But then all those thorn bushes—I
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