rently of rock crystal, though so begrimed and dull its nature was
difficult to speak of with certainty. The bead was of no seeming value
and slipped unintentionally into my waistcoat pocket as I chatted for a
few minutes more with the doctor, and then, shaking hands, I said
goodbye, and went back to the cab which was still waiting outside.

It was only on reaching home I noticed the hospital porters had omitted
to take the dead man's carpet from the roof of the cab when they
carried him in, and as the cabman did not care about driving back to
the hospital with it, and it could not well be left in the street, I
somewhat reluctantly carried it indoors with me.

Once in the shine of my own lamp and a cigar in my mouth I had a closer
look at that ancient piece of art work from heaven, or the other place,
only knows what ancient loom.

A big, strong rug of faded Oriental colouring, it covered half the
floor of my sitting-room, the substance being of a material more like
camel's hair than anything else, and running across, when examined
closely, were some dark fibres so long and fine that surely they must
have come from the tail of Solomon's favourite black stallion itself.
But the strangest thing about that carpet was its pattern. It was
threadbare enough to all conscience in places, yet the design still
lived in solemn, age-wasted hues, and, as I dragged it to my
stove-front and spread it out, it seemed to me that it was as much like
a star map done by a scribe who had lately recovered from delirium
tremens as anything else. In the centre appeared a round such as might
be taken for the sun, while here and there, "in the field," as heralds
say, were lesser orbs which from their size and position could
represent smaller worlds circling about it. Between these orbs were
dotted lines and arrow-heads of the oldest form pointing in all
directions, while all the intervening spaces were filled up with woven
characters half-way in appearance between Runes and Cryptic-Sanskrit.
Round the borders these characters ran into a wild maze, a perfect
jungle of an alphabet through which none but a wizard could have forced
a way in search of meaning.

Altogether, I thought as I kicked it out straight upon my floor, it was
a strange and not unhandsome article of furniture--it would do nicely
for the mess-room on the Carolina, and if any representatives of yonder
poor old fellow turned up tomorrow, why, I would give them a couple of
dol