of swarthy
complexion, with coal-black hair, beard and eyes, the latter very keen
and piercing. There was a distinct touch of hauteur in his manner to
Kedah; but to Dick he and his wife were friendliness itself, while to
Earle they showed that deep reverence which seemed to be the invariable
rule with the Uluans.

The lady Tua seemed to be some five years younger than her husband,
dark, and decidedly handsome, but, like all the Uluan women of mature
age, she displayed a distinct tendency to become stout.

Kedah undertook the task of explaining to his two pupils the object of
the visit, and to do the old gentleman justice, he succeeded fairly
well, considering the difficulties which confronted him. He talked a
good deal, but speech, of itself, naturally did not count for much. He
supplemented his words, however, with such a wonderful wealth of
gesture, accent and tone, that the two white men found it by no means
difficult to guess the general drift of his speech, especially as he
adopted the novel method of further elucidating his meaning by a number
of amazingly clever sketches produced upon a kind of papyrus, with the
aid of a very fine brush and a small bottle of some kind of ink, which
he had taken the precaution to bring with him.

With these aids, then, he managed to make Earle and Dick understand that
the visit was, first, one of thanks for the assistance rendered to the
unfortunate Mishail on the preceding day, and next, a request that one,
or both, would be so very obliging as to visit the patient, who was
either very ill, or suffering much pain--they could not quite make out
which was meant--and see what could be done for him.

To this request the comrades at once willingly assented, the more
readily because, having, by a piece of extraordinarily good luck,
obtained entrance to what they understood was, to all intents and
purposes, a forbidden city, so far as outsiders were concerned, it was
now good policy on their part to establish the best possible relations
with its people. Accordingly, Earle routed out his medicine case and,
tucking it under his arm, signified his readiness to go at once.

As it chanced, they had not very far to go, the Hasca residence being
situated less than a mile from the palace, in an even more aristocratic
looking avenue than the one in which the accident had occurred. They
found Mishail, the patient, lodged in a sumptuous chamber, attended by
his sister Lissa, a remarkabl