ended twenty steps more. They came to a similar
door; and after descending twenty more steps to another, and so on,
till after passing the ninth door, they found themselves in the open
air.

"Remain here till you are called," said the old man, who went back
into the building through the same doors, which he shut after him.

Haschem was very curious to examine more closely the building in which
he had been imprisoned: he therefore went round it, and narrowly
observed it. It was a tower of nine storeys, each about fifteen feet
in height. The tower had nine angles and nine flat walls; in each
storey were three windows, so contrived that for every two walls
without a window, the third had one. These windows were not directly
over one another in the storeys, but alternate; so that only three
appeared in each wall. This distribution of regularity and order
reigned throughout the whole building. The walls were made of large
pieces of gold, quite as smooth as glass, like large stones; and these
were so skilfully put together that, even when closely looked at, the
joints could not be discovered. The lattices of the windows were all
of gold, like those in the upper hall, and the lower doors through
which he had passed were of a yellow metal, inclining to green.

All these considerations were not calculated to lessen his conviction
that no man could possibly find him out in such a prison. Suddenly a
new hope awoke in him.

"I am no longer shut up in the tower," said he to himself; "here I am
in the open air, in a garden: I can clamber and jump like a monkey. I
may possibly find some outlet from this garden, by which I can
escape."

He immediately turned from the tower, and hastened through the
gardens, seeking freedom; but he soon discovered that this hope was
vain. With a few steps he reached the end of the garden, and stood
before a gate of lattice-work of strong smooth iron bars, so close
together that he could scarcely pass his arm through. He tried to
climb it by holding by the upper bars with his hands; but his feet
slipped on the smooth iron, and he hurt his knee so much that, in
consequence of not being able to bear the pain, he fell backwards on
the earth. He now examined the lattice closely to see if there were no
means of escape; but all was in vain--everywhere the bars were high,
thick, and like polished glass. Mournfully he wandered round the
garden: the sun's rays darting down scorched up the grass, and he
sou