come.'

"'You know the council chamber of our lord, the zemindar, with its
three-and-thirty columns of white marble. These are massive, seeming to
have been hewn out of single pieces of rock--base, pillar, and capital
all in one, each column in its entirety a single piece of quarried
stone. But learn that this is not so, for these monoliths are in reality
artificially made, having been fashioned by clever workers from the
Coromandel country, who brought with them here supplies of a certain
hard white stone, which they first roasted to a great heat, and then
ground to the fineness of flour, finally compounding this material with
other things, and constructing therefrom the columns of marble you now
behold.'

"'Indeed have I marvelled at their size,' commented Abdul, 'and wondered
how such mighty blocks of hewn stone could have been obtained or set in
place.'

"'Well, you learn now that they were not quarried but moulded. This work
was done in the time of my father, when he was treasurer in the service
of the zemindar, then a young man. Now, know that the architect of the
zemindar's palace was a dishonest knave, for he contrived that one of
the three-and-thirty columns of marble should be hollow, and fitted
inside with steps or holding places of iron, so that a lissom man might
ascend and gain access to the treasure chamber above. This he confided
to my father, seeking to gain him as a confederate in systematically
robbing their master. But my father had a heart of gold and a hand of
steel, for he slew the would-be thief after disdainfully rejecting his
base proposal. Yet did he keep locked up in his own breast exclusively,
knowledge of the hollow marble column, and of the sliding sections that
gave access to it both above and below. For knowledge is power, he
argued, and no man should squander such power any more than he would
squander wealth. The destined time would come for the use of the
knowledge, and it was in this faith that, just before he died, he
confided the secret to me, his successor in the office of treasurer.

"'And with me unto this day the secret has remained. But now at last the
workings of fate are disclosed. How old art thou, Abdul?'

"'Four-and-twenty summers,' he replied.

"'Well, a full score years before you were born God so contrived that
there should be a means for you to rescue the pearl of your heart, and
escape, both of you, back to your own country. Go now and arrange the
relays of ho