semi-sleep while the Persian is in his room, and yet no injury is done
him. Still, when the clear necessity to murder--the clear means of
gaining the stone--presents itself to Ul-Jabal, he does not hesitate a
moment--indeed, he has already made elaborate preparations for that
very necessity. And when was it that this necessity presented itself?
It was when the baronet put the false stone in the pocket of a loose
gown for the purpose of confronting the Persian with it. But what kind
of pocket? I think you will agree with me, that male garments,
admitting of the designation "gown," have usually only outer
pockets--large, square pockets, simply sewed on to the outside of the
robe. But a stone of that size _must_ have made such a pocket bulge
outwards. Ul-Jabal must have noticed it. Never before has he been
perfectly sure that the baronet carried the long-desired gem about on
his body; but now at last he knows beyond all doubt. To obtain it,
there are several courses open to him: he may rush there and then on
the weak old man and tear the stone from him; he may ply him with
narcotics, and extract it from the pocket during sleep. But in these
there is a small chance of failure; there is a certainty of near or
ultimate detection, pursuit--and this is a land of Law, swift and
fairly sure. No, the old man must die: only thus--thus surely, and thus
secretly--can the outraged dignity of Hasn-us-Sabah be appeased. On the
very next day he leaves the house--no more shall the mistrustful
baronet, who is "hiding something from him," see his face. He carries
with him a small parcel. Let me tell you what was in that parcel: it
contained the baronet's fur cap, one of his "brown gowns," and a
snow-white beard and wig. Of the cap we can be sure; for from the fact
that, on leaving his room at midnight to follow the Persian through the
_house_, he put it on his head, I gather that he wore it habitually
during all his waking hours; yet after Ul-Jabal has left him he wanders
_far and wide_ "with uncovered head." Can you not picture the
distracted old man seeking ever and anon with absent mind for his
long-accustomed head-gear, and seeking in vain? Of the gown, too, we
may be equally certain: for it was the procuring of this that led
Ul-Jabal to the baronet's trunk; we now know that he did not go there
to _hide_ the stone, for he had it not to hide; nor to _seek_ it, for
he would be unable to believe the baronet childish enough to deposit it
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