Lora of Two Worlds

I signed to the two of them to make no great noise, and we crept down the stair.

We hid in the stairwell, and saw a tall, thin man slip into the house. He wore a peaked cap, and glanced this way and that, slinking like a thief. At a glance, he was no honest man.

’Hold, in the name of the Watch!’ Elara cried.

The man looked up, saw us, and went pale with fear. He turned and fled. We rushed after him. Broderick was as swift as a leopard. He soon caught the man, bore him to the ground, drew the shackles from his belt, and bound him. The deed was clean and swift.

The folk who dwelt upon the street heard the turmoil, and came out one and all to look on.

When we came up to him, the man put on a face of woe, and said, ’Captain, I did but see the door open, and went in to look. I have done nothing, in truth...’

Elara, with hands on hips, spoke in stern voice. ’To look, you say? Know you not this is the scene of a murder? Have you some part in this deed?’

The man grew white as paper, and waved his hands hard. ’Captain, Captain, I... I did but wish to see if there were aught to pilfer.’

Elara laughed. ’He cannot bear a fright. A thief, it seems.’

The man’s face went now green, now white. Among the folk who looked on, one knew him. ’This is the fellow! Last month he stole a garment I had hung out to dry!’

’The vase that was lost from my house, it must have been him too!’

’Aye! And my son’s bicycle, set without the door. In the turning of an eye, it was gone!’

The folk fell to crying out against him, one and all. The thief, cowering, bowed his head, and cast looks of pleading at us. Elara brought forth her Watch-badge, and said, ’Good folk, be at peace. We are of the Watch. This thief we will take back and question well. All the stolen goods, we will seek out and return.’

The folk then ceased their outcry. I said, ’How dare you make so great a boast?’

Elara winked at me, and laughed. ’No matter. This is not our ground. If we cannot get them back, let the local Watch-house bear the blame!’

I sighed. ’We are all of one root...’

Elara hauled the thief up, and asked his name and trade.

This thief was called Zhang Liu-er. He was, in truth, no master thief, but a worthless rogue who would not work. Seeing that this quarter had no keeper of the peace, he would come, every few days, to prowl about, and see if there were aught to be had for nothing. At times he would pilfer the pickled vegetables or the flower-pots that folk set on their window-sills. He would even make off with a whole pot of stewed chicken, pot and all, if a man had set his coal-stove at the door. In short, if there was a gain to be had, he was there.

Elara spoke in the deepest scorn. ’I have never seen so worthless a thief. He is a shame to the patron saint of thieves.’

Zhang Liu-er gave a sheepish laugh, and then took a kick from Elara, and was at once well-behaved.

I asked, ’You prowl here day in and day out. You must know that a murder befell two days past? Have you not seen the Watchmen looking into the matter hereabouts? Why, then, did you enter that house?’

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’I meant no harm. I did but go in to look,’ Zhang Liu-er gave me a fawning smile.

’Are you not thinking upon some thing within?’ I pressed him, with a hard eye.

Zhang Liu-er made haste to deny it. ’No, no! A house where men have died, what is there to covet?’

Good. So you will not speak!

I called up the Soul-Anchor Eye, of a sudden. Zhang Liu-er broke into a cold sweat. I fixed my eyes on his, and said, ’I ask you once more: are you, or are you not, thinking upon some thing within that house!’

I had meant to use the Soul-Anchor Eye to read his lie. But Zhang Liu-er was timid as a mouse. He shut his eyes, and waved his hands hard. ’Good sir, good sir, slay me not! I will speak! I will speak, is that not enough?’

I was moved to laughter by his cowardice. ’Who said I would slay you?’

’Your eyes, they are terrible, as though they could slay, like that cat...’

At these words, I was on my guard at once. I seized him by the shoulders, and asked in haste, ’What cat do you speak of?’

I was, perhaps, too eager, and had hurt him. He drew in his neck, and trembled as he spoke. ’Good sir, good sir, will you not first put away those red eyes?’

I drew back the Soul-Anchor Eye, and bade him tell all, from first to last.

Zhang Liu-er said that of late he had been hard pressed for coin. His petty thieving could not serve the real need, and so he thought to do a greater deed: to break into empty houses!

He had marked the household of the dead. For by day the couple were not at home. Only the old madam was there. Her legs were faulty, and her sight was poor. Zhang Liu-er had passed himself off as a coal-gas reader, and gone in to look the place over, to see if there were aught of value.

Zhang Liu-er, when only the old madam was at home, had got in without difficulty. He had gone through the house, and in a store-room on the ground floor, he found a cat’s statue. It seemed to be gilded. The workmanship was fine, and it was made true to life. The two eyes appeared to be of gem, and it looked to be worth a great sum.

Zhang Liu-er, at that moment, had conceived the thief’s intent, and would have borne the cat away. But who could have known, the cat’s eyes had moved, all at once, and turned toward him!

Zhang Liu-er had taken a great fright. By chance he had made some small noise. The old madam, without, asked what was the matter. Zhang Liu-er had made some excuse, and then taken his leave.

After a time of watching, he found that the old madam would go to a neighbour’s house every few days to play at tiles, and the house would be empty. He had meant to choose a good hour to strike.

But before he could strike, the household had met with that doom. Three had died. The Watch had soon sealed the scene, and he had to give up the thought.

He had not looked, today, to find the door open. His thief’s heart had stirred again, and he had thought to go up and look. And so he had fallen into the ditch, as they say.

When Zhang Liu-er had done, I fell to thinking. I had not, within the house, seen any statue. Had someone taken it away?

Elara asked me, ’What shall we do with this thief?’

I said, ’The Watchmen I sent out are looking into things nearby. Find one of them, and have him take this thief back to give his deposition.’

’Aye, aye, good sir, good sir! I have spoken all! Why must I still give a deposition? You are busy with your murder. I will not trouble your work. Do but raise your hand, and let your little brother go, as one lets go a fart!’ Zhang Liu-er said.

I was moved to laughter, and said, ’No matter. We will hand you to the Watch-house here. It will not take our precious time.’

Zhang Liu-er, with a wry face, said, ’Have I not told you all? The thing, in truth, I did not take!’

Elara spoke in wrath. ’Be still! You have stolen no little, I warrant. Go back, and make clear all you have done!’

In sooth, we saw a Watchman pass by. We called him, bade him take Zhang Liu-er, and bear him to the Watch-house nearby to be entered. Then we went back to the scene of the murder. Vivienne Locke had returned, and held in her hand a bag of flour. She asked, ’Where did you run off to?’

I answered, ’We went out and caught a thief.’

’Caught a thief?’ Vivienne Locke gave a cold laugh. ’You have much time on your hands. Here, this is what you asked for.’

I gave my thanks, took the flour in my hand, and went into the store-room on the ground floor to look. There was no cat such as Zhang Liu-er had spoken of. I opened the flour, and laid a thin layer upon the windows, the window-sills, and the doors.

Elara asked, of a sudden, ’Ha! When we dealt with that ghost-woman at the Academy, you used this same art. Do you, then, suspect that ghosts walk in this house?’