fingers were very long and delicate. He
rubbed his hands together as the riders dismounted, and commenced to
chatter to them in an unknown tongue, bowing and smiling the while. His
wares were displayed about him on shelves and boxes and tables, as well
as on the counter, and the clocks and watches, as usual in such places,
showed all hours of the twelve. A striped awning of orange and blue,
fastened at the rear to the side of the city wall, shielded him and his
booth from the sun. Behind him in the wall was a closed iron door.

"We're in the wrong shop," said Toby to his companions. "Some mistake.
Anyway, here goes." And addressing the young man behind the counter, he
said: "Good-afternoon. We are looking for Mr. Shiraz the Rug-Merchant.
This don't look much like a rug shop, but maybe you can tell us. Shiraz;
that's his name."

"No understand," said the young man, rubbing his hands and bowing
pleasantly.

"Shiraz," said Toby. "Think. Shiraz. Easy word, Shiraz. You understand?"

"Clocks and watches," said the young man. "Sundials. You buy?"

"No, no," said Toby. "We no buy. Want Shiraz. Confound it, that's an
easy word, ain't it? Shiraz! Can't you understand that?"

"No sell Shiraz," said the young man. "Clocks and watches."

"Look here," said Toby, "what's the number of this place?"

"No number," said the young man, looking puzzled and shaking his head.
"Clocks and watches."

"By crackey," said Toby, "we're in the wrong place sure enough."

Now while this talk was going on, Freddie had made a discovery. He had
noticed, on a box at the rear, against the wall, a row of seven old
clocks. They were battered and broken, and were evidently long since out
of repair; two of them had no hands. Like most of the clocks in the
place, they were stopped, and had probably, from the looks of them,
ceased many years before to keep time. He noted idly the time shown by
each of these clocks, and started in surprise. The hour shown by the
first clock at the left was three o'clock. That shown by the next was
one o'clock. The next had no hands, and showed no time at all. The next
showed one o'clock, the next three o'clock, the next one o'clock, and
the seventh had no hands. He ran his eye over them again, and the
numbers which resulted were 3101310.

"Come along," said Toby. "We might as well ask at some of these other
shops. There ain't no use wasting time here."

He moved away, and the others followed him towards the adjoining