[#] Money matters.
"Send him to Sing Wen. You know perfectly well I don't do business in bed, you ass. Any more of this foolo pidgin and you'll get the sack."
"Massa no unastan'," cried Chin Tai excitedly. "This piecee man he say he come look-see Sing Wen evely day-lo; Sing Wen say he no can makee anyting fo' he; he muss waitee fo' massa come back."
"Who is the blackguard?"
"He velly 'spectable fella, sah; he belongey opium shop-lo Pa-tang side."
"Oh! That's quite enough. Tell him to get out; I've nothing to do with him or his opium."
"My tellum all that, sah; he say he stop plenty longee time; massa no look-see he, ch'hoy! he cut float on door-step all-same."
Extravagant as this threat might appear, Burroughs knew that it was by no means unheard-of for a Chinaman, smarting under a sense of injustice, to commit suicide on the threshold of the man who had injured him. He was considering whether he had not better get up and prevent the horrid deed, when Errington, who occupied the next room, came in by the communicating door.
"You're in for it, old chap," he said, laughing. "The receiver's as bad as the thief, you know, and there's going to be trouble about that moustache of yours."
He picked up the moustache from the dressing-table, and dangled it before Burroughs' disgusted eyes.