to my home to bring back the medicine.

"I knew, of course, that it was only a dry powder that this high-born
Hindu lady could take from my dispensary, for to have swallowed a liquid
drug would have been a violation of her caste. I took pains to let the
chuprassi see that my hands did not touch the powder, which, after due
weighing, I bestowed in a paper carefully sealed, instructing him to
deliver it to no one but his highness the maharajah. It was only finely
ground sugar that the man carried away. But perhaps this is a harmless
little trick of my profession which even now I should not disclose."

But a general smile among the company showed the hakeem that his calling
was held in no undue reverence, at least by those without present need
of his ministrations.

"When I was alone with my mortars and my drugs," resumed the narrator,
"I lost no time in examining the mysterious packet. I unwound the silk
threads that tightly tied it, both to restrict its bulk and to render it
secure. Soon, to my amazement, I uncovered a string of ten pearls, of a
size and lustrous purity that bespoke a high value even to my untutored
eyes. Also there was a little seal of red chalcedony, with the antlered
head of a deer and some scroll of lettering engraved upon it; but there
was not one scrap of writing to explain to me the reason of these gifts.

"Had the lady, as often happens, imagined herself to be seriously sick,
and devised this plan of invoking my interest and most skilful services
on her behalf? But why, then, the seal, the value of which was quite
insignificant?

"Even as I was pondering these questions, there came a clapping of hands
at the gateway of my home that announced the arrival of a visitor.
Hastily concealing the pearls and the seal in my girdle, I stepped forth
into the outer court and took my seat upon the divan.

"Straightway there was ushered into my presence a big man clothed in
rich garments. His sable complexion and thick lips declared him to be a
moorman from across the seas, and his beardless chin further told at a
glance that he was an attendant at the seraglio of some rich noble.

"He salaamed me with the cool confidence of his kind, and, without
waiting for an invitation, seated himself on the carpet at my feet.

"'My name, O learned hakeem, is Malik Kafur,' he began in the shrill
treble voice I had anticipated, 'and you know why I come here.'

"As my knowledge had been taken for granted, I bowed in