THE SIAMESE CAT
make him the fool. He shall not see the stone again; and if it is as you have said, I shall send your thousand ticals to the Hongkong bank in Bangkok. You deserve only the bastinado; but this, perhaps, will square my conscience towards the dead man." He opened the door. "Now go, and never again come before me, for next time I also should kill."
Silent, placid, the clerk slipped through the door and flitted aft. Owen turned to the cat.
"Chao Phya, if what that fellow said is true—" He stooped to examine the middle bell. This fat shell of fluted silver might contain a treasure. But the fastening held strongly, the collar was locked on. "Borkman has the key," thought Owen. He could not bend or break the bell off, and the narrow slit showed only something that joggled and tinkled, and that might
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