out of the underground walls--the very bit of
pointed iron, it was, with which the volatile creature had effected
his rescue.

He considered it an invaluable souvenir and twice, in his nervous
apprehension, he almost brought it down upon shadows.

Direction he judged vaguely by the screaming which was still going
on at a tremendous rate--evidently the girl had gone off into
genuine hysterics or else she had determined not to leave her
agitation at the intrusion in any manner of question. No doubt the
outcries were a relief to her mingled emotions--remorse at her
impetuosity and chagrin that her thwarted plans might conceivably be
now among those emotions--and since the vicinity of those shrieks
must be a gathering place to be avoided by him he stole on, down the
upper hall, and finding a stair, he went down for two continuous
flights.

Aimee's rooms, he knew, had been upon the water, and recalling the
general direction of those two lighted windows that he had seen so
recently from without, his excavator's instinct led him on. Once he
saw the flitting figure of a turbaned woman in time to draw back
into a heaven-sent niche and again he flattened into a soundless
shadow against the wall as two young serving girls ran by on
slippered feet, their anklets tinkling, chattering to each other in
delighted excitement.

And then the stealthy opening of a door--it was the very door by
which Yussuf had precipitated himself upon the struggle at the
supper table some age-long hours ago--gave him a glimpse into the
far glooms of the reception room, where its long side of mashrubiyeh
windows revealed now between its fretwork tiny chinks of a paling
sky.

He could make out the dark-draped marriage throne and the pallor of
the disordered cloth upon the abandoned table below, and behind the
table the dark draperies of the remaining portieres before the
doorway into the boudoir where he had hidden himself and into which
he had last seen Aimee thrust.

At the other end of the great room were the entrance stairs to the
harem, and there, he imagined, a watchman was stationed, or else
stout bolts and bars were guarding the situation. There remained an
arched doorway into other formal rooms through which he had seen
Aimee and the guests disappear for the wedding supper, and that way
led, he surmised, down into the service quarters.

A sorry choice of exits! He could form no plan in advance but trust
blindly to the amazing chances of