looking forth) asked me who it was that followed me, I thought she

spoke in jest. 'Not at all,' she said. 'I saw him twice as you

passed, walking close at your heels. He only left you at the

corner of the maniap'; he must be still behind the cook-house.'

Thither I ran--like a fool, without any weapon--and came face to

face with the cook. He was within my tapu-line, which was death in

itself; he could have no business there at such an hour but either

to steal or to kill; guilt made him timorous; and he turned and

fled before me in the night in silence. As he went I kicked him in

that place where honour lies, and he gave tongue faintly like an

injured mouse. At the moment I daresay he supposed it was a deadly

instrument that touched him.

What had the man been after? I have found my music better

qualified to scatter than to collect an audience. Amateur as I

was, I could not suppose him interested in my reading of the

Carnival of Venice, or that he would deny himself his natural rest

to follow my variations on The Ploughboy. And whatever his design,

it was impossible I should suffer him to prowl by night among the

houses. A word to the king, and the man were not, his case being

far beyond pardon. But it is one thing to kill a man yourself;

quite another to bear tales behind his back and have him shot by a

third party; and I determined to deal with the fellow in some

method of my own. I told Ah Fu the story, and bade him fetch me

the cook whenever he should find him. I had supposed this would be

a matter of difficulty; and far from that, he came of his own

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