transcription thou
hast made, and swear to preserve an inviolable secrecy regarding the
meaning thereof."

"Do you know what you're asking, sir?" said the mule, laying back his
ears viciously. "Do you think that to oblige you I'm going to suppress
one of the most remarkable discoveries of my whole scientific career?
Never, sir--never!"

"Since if thou refusest I shall assuredly deprive thee of speech once
more and leave thee a mule, as thou art now, of hideous appearance,"
said the Jinnee, "thou art like to gain little by a discovery which thou
wilt be unable to impart. However, the choice rests with thee."

The mule rolled his one eye, and showed all his teeth in a vicious
snarl. "You've got the whip-hand of me," he said, "and I may as well
give in. There's a transcript inside my blotting-case--it's the only
copy I've made."

Fakrash found the paper, which he rubbed into invisibility between his
palms, as any ordinary conjurer might do.

"Now raise thy right forefoot," he said, "and swear by all thou holdest
sacred never to divulge what thou hast learnt"--which oath the
Professor, in the vilest of tempers, took, clumsily enough.

"Good," said the Jinnee, with a grim smile. "Now let one of thy women
bring me a cup of fair water."

Sylvia went out, and came back with a cup of water. "It's filtered," she
said anxiously; "I don't know if that will do?"

"It will suffice," said Fakrash. "Let both the women withdraw."

"Surely," remonstrated Mrs. Futvoye, "you don't mean to turn his wife
and daughter out of the room at such a moment as this? We shall be
perfectly quiet, and we may even be of some help."

"Do as you're told, my dear!" snapped the ungrateful mule; "do as you're
told. You'll only be in the way here. Do you suppose he doesn't know his
own beastly business?"

They left accordingly; whereupon Fakrash took the cup--an ordinary
breakfast cup with a Greek key-border pattern in pale blue round the
top--and, drenching the mule with the contents, exclaimed, "Quit this
form and return to the form in which thou wast!"

For a dreadful moment or two it seemed as if no effect was to be
produced; the animal simply stood and shivered, and Ventimore began to
feel an agonising suspicion that the Jinnee really had, as he had first
asserted, forgotten how to perform this particular incantation.

All at once the mule reared, and began to beat the air frantically with
his fore-hoofs; after which he fell heavily back