Heedless of the words, Shahmarah s.n.a.t.c.hed up the packet, tore off the wrappings, and in a trice was standing upright before me wearing the _yashmak_ of pearls.

I think I had never seen a figure more barbarically lovely than that of this soulless Egyptian so adorned.

"My mirror, Safiyeh! my mirror!" she cried.

And the girl placing a big silver mirror in her hand, she stood there looking into its surface, her wonderful eyes swimming with ecstasy and her slim body swaying in a perfect rapture of admiration for her own beauty.

Suddenly she dropped the mirror upon the cushions and threw wide her arms.

"Am I not the fairest woman in Egypt?" she exclaimed. "I tread upon the hearts of men and my power is above the power of kings!"

Then a subtle change crept over her features; and ere I could utter the first of the honeyed compliments ready upon my tongue--

"Send Amineh to warn Mahmd that the old woman is about to depart,"

she directed her attendant; and, turning to me: "Wait in the outer room. Thy presence is loathsome to me, O mother of calamities."

"I hear and obey," I replied, "O pomegranate blossom"--and, following the direction of her rigidly extended finger, I shuffled back to the little octagonal apartment and the masked door was slammed almost upon my heels.

This room, which possessed no windows, was solely illuminated by a silken-shaded lantern, but I had not long to wait in that weird half-light ere my conductress, again closely m.u.f.fled in her shawls, opened the door at the head of the steps and signed to me to descend.

"Lead the way, my beautiful daughter," I said; for I had no intention of submitting myself to the risk of a dagger in the back.

She consented without demur, which served to allay my suspicions somewhat, and in silence we went down the uncarpeted stairs and out into the trellis-covered walk. The shadow beneath the high wall had deepened and widened since we had last skirted the gardens, and I felt my way along with my hand cautiously outstretched.

At a point within sight of the flower-grown arbor beneath which I knew the gate to be concealed, my guide halted.

"I must return, mother," she said quickly. "There is the gate, and Mahmd will open it for you."

"Farewell, O daughter of the willow branch," I replied. "May Allah, the Great, the Compa.s.sionate, be with thee, and may thou marry a prince of Persia."

Light of foot she sped away, and, my forebodings coming to a sudden climax, I crept forward with excessive caution, holding my clenched hand immediately in front of my face--a device which experience of the hospitable manners of the East had taught me.

It was well that I did so. Within three s.p.a.ces of the gate a noose fell accurately over my head and was drawn tight with a strangling jerk!

But that it also encircled my upraised arm, its clasp must have terminated my worldly affairs.

My a.s.sailant had sprung upon me from behind; and, in the fleeting instant between the fall of the noose and its tightening, I turned about ... and thrust the nose of my Colt repeater (which I grasped in that protective upraised hand) fully into the grinning mouth of the negro gate-keeper!

There was a rattle and gleam of falling ivory, for several of the _bowwab's_ teeth had been dislodged by the steel barrel. Keeping the weapon firmly thrust into the man's distended jaws, I circled around him, whilst his hands relaxed their hold upon the strangling-cord, and pushed him backward in the direction of the door.

"Open thou black son of offal!" I said, "or I will blow thee a cavity as wide as thy blubber mouth through the back of that fat and greasy neck! This was, no doubt, a stratagem of thy mistress to test my fitness to be entrusted with large sums of money?"

When, a few moments later, I stood in the lane outside the gardens of Yssuf Bey, and felt with my hand the fat wallet at my waist, I experienced a thrill of professional satisfaction, for had I not successfully negotiated a duplicate veil, embroidered with imitation pearls which the excellent Suleyman Levi by dint of four days of almost ceaseless toil had made for me?...

From the shadows of the opposite wall Ab Tabah stepped forth, stately.

"Quick!" I said. "I fear pursuit at any moment! Is the _arabiyeh_ waiting?"

"You have it?" he demanded, some faint sign of human animation creeping over his impa.s.sive face.

"I have!" I replied. "I will give it to you in the _arabiyeh_."

Side by side we pa.s.sed down the deserted thoroughfare to where, beside a solitary palm, a pair-horse carriage was waiting. Appreciating something of my companion's natural impatience, I pressed into his hand the famous sandalwood box which once had reposed in the _tarbsh_ of Ali Mohammed. The carriage rolled around a corner and out into the lighted Sharia Mobadayan. Ab Tabah opened the sandalwood box, and then, reverently, the inner box of silver. Within shimmered the pearls of the sacred _burko_. He did not touch the relic with his hands, but reclosed the boxes and concealed the reliquary beneath his black robe.

I heard the crackle of notes; and a little packet surrounded by a band of elastic was pressed into my hand.

"Three hundred pounds, English," said Ab Tabah. "One hundred pounds in recompense for the commission you returned, and two hundred pounds for the recovery of the relic."

I thrust the wad into the bag beneath my robe containing the other spoils of the evening. A second and even more grateful glow of professional joy warmed my heart. For in the reliquary which I had handed to Ab Tabah reposed the second product of Suleyman Levi's scientific toils; his four days' labor having resulted in the production of two quite pa.s.sable duplicates; although neither were by any means up to the standard of Messrs. Moses, Murphy & Co.

Coming to the house wherein I had endued my disguise, Ab Tabah left me to metamorphose myself into a decently dressed Englishman suitable for admission to an hotel of international repute.

"_Liltak sa'ida_, Ab Tabah," I said.

In the open doorway he turned.

"_Liltak sa'ida_, Kernaby Pasha," he replied, and smiled upon me very sweetly.

VI

It was after midnight when I returned to Shepheard's, but I went straight to my room, and switching on the table-lamp, wrote a long letter to my princ.i.p.als. Something seemed to have gone wrong with the lock of my attache-case, and my good humor was badly out of joint by the time that I succeeded in opening it. From underneath a ma.s.s of business correspondence I took out a large, sealed envelope, which I enclosed with a letter in one yet larger, to be registered to Messrs.

Moses, Murphy & Co., Birmingham, in the morning. I turned in utterly tired but happy, to dream complacently of the smile of Ab Tabah and of the party of holy men who had journeyed from Ispahan.

Exactly a fortnight later the following registered letter was handed to me as I was about to sit down to lunch--

The Hon. Neville Kernaby.

Shepheard's Hotel, Cairo, Egypt.

DEAR MR. NEVILLE KERNABY--

We are returning herewith the silken veil which you describe as "the authentic _burko_ of the Seyyideh Nefiseh, stolen from her shrine in the Tombs of the Khalifs." Your statement that you can arrange for its purchase at the cost of one thousand pounds does not interest us, nor do we expect so high-salaried an expert as yourself to send us palpable and very inferior forgeries. We are manufacturers of duplicates, not buyers of same.

Yours truly,

LLOYD LLEWELLYN.

(For Messrs. Moses, Murphy & Co.).

I was positively aghast. Tearing open the enclosed package, I glared like a madman at the _yashmak_ which it contained. The silk, in comparison with that of which the real veil was compared, was coa.r.s.e as cocoanut matting; the embroidery was crude; the pearls shrieked "imitation" aloud! At a glance I knew the thing for one of the pair made by Suleyman Levi!

The truth crashed in upon my mind. Following my visit to the _harem_ of Yssuf Bey, I had bestowed no more than a glance upon the envelope wherein, early on the morning of the same day, I had lovingly sealed the authentic veil; and a full hour had elapsed between the time of parting with the sugar-lipped one and my return to my rooms at the hotel.

I understood, now, why the lock of my attache-case had been out of order on that occasion ... and I comprehended the sweet smile of Ab Tabah!

II