cited than he liked to own.
He is eminently a man who loves danger, and his nature never warms so
genially as when something desperate is to be done. A Christian by race
and belief, he has absorbed much of the fatalism of the Oriental races,
and his courage is of the fatalist kind, reckless and devoted.

"Yes," he answered. "I have made up my mind. One must either be the
camel or the camel-driver. One must either submit to the course of
events, or do something to violently change their direction. If we
submit much longer, we shall lose the game. The old woman will die,--the
Turkish women always die when they are ill; and if she is once dead
without confessing, we may give up all hope."

"We should always have Selim to examine," I remarked.

"If Laleli Khanum dies, Selim will disappear the same hour,--laying
hands on everything within reach, of course. How could we catch him? He
would cross the Bosphorus, put on a disguise of some sort, and make his
way to Egypt in no time. Those fellows are very cunning."

"Then you mean to try and extort a confession from Laleli herself? How
in the world do you mean to do it? It is a case of life or death."

"I have got life and death in my pocket," answered Gregorios, his eyes
beginning to sparkle. "Can you read Turkish? Of course you can. Read
that."

I took the folded document and examined it.

"This is an Irade!" I exclaimed, in great surprise; "an imperial order
to arrest Laleli Khanum Effendi,--good heavens! Balsamides, I had no
idea that you possessed such tools as this!"

"To tell you how I got it would be to tell you my own history during the
last ten years," he answered, in low tones. "I trust you, Griggs, but
there are other reasons why I cannot tell you all that. You see the
result, at all events, and a result very dearly paid for," he added
gravely. "But I have got the thing, and what is more, I have permission
to personate the Sultan's private physician."

"What is that for? I should think the Irade were quite enough."

"Laleli might die of fright, if I merely presented myself and threatened
to arrest her. But I shall see her in the assumed character of the court
physician. Laleli is a Turkish woman, who understands no other language
but her own and Greek. She is very superstitious, and believes in all
manner of charms and spells; for she has no ideas at all concerning
Western science, except that it is all contrary to the Koran. I can talk
the jargon of an old