When Singo had heard his subordinate’s statement, he looked with a contemptuous and pitying smile upon him, as he scornfully said to the Chinaman:
“Much use you are to Lim Ho and Lim Yang Bing! You a bandoelan! You will never find smuggled opium,” he continued, in a jeering tone, “you are too clumsy.”
“No,” was the man’s indignant reply, “nor you either, where there is no opium to be found!”
“Come, Keh,” said Singo. “Will you bet me a rix-dollar that I don’t manage to find some?”
“Quite impossible,” cried the Chinaman, “I have turned the house inside out. I have searched the bamboo laths of the walls and roof, and there is nothing—absolutely nothing anywhere.”
“Have you looked under the hearth?” asked Singomengolo.
“Yes.”
“And in the ashes under the hearth?”
“Yes,” was the reply again.
“And have you grubbed up the floor?”