THE SIAMESE CAT
The clerk held up two roly-poly fingers. "And he would have killed me for the third. Maskee! These three, then, hovered close as spirits, or the Funiao. Sin Cheong, my master, has not left his shop once. Then also the policemans would have searched Bolkoman, for some other act of his wickedness, which is manifold. So he sailed away to the Straits, leaving my master to watch the Burmah treasure in the God of Longevity.
Within this month he returned. He came as a great man, friend to wealthy women. May his house offend both the Green Dragon and the White Tiger! He bought my folly for a thousand ticals, that I should steal the stone, the dove-blood, the priceless. For my master would not give it up: 'Together we own,' I heard him say, 'Together we go sell. Not singly.' But he could not wake always. So one night, in the time it takes to drink a cup of
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