me. Upon the cover was stamped a great
gilt monogram of letters in some strange language. The edges were
stained a brilliant and peculiarly vivid green. The pages were of fine
pearl-colored vellum, covered with strange characters in black. Each
chapter began with a great red initial surrounded by an illuminated
design of many colored arabesques. It was indeed a volume to cause a
book-lover to cry out with joy.

"Here is all the law man needs, the sacred Koran. Here is the
beginning and end of law, the source of regulations that ensure
righteous conduct, the precepts of Mohammed, prophet of Allah. If
other laws agree with those of the Koran, they are needless. If they
disagree, they are evil. Study this guide of life, my friend, and
there will be no need to worry your brain with tomes of the
presumptuous wights who from their own imaginings dare attempt to
dictate laws and impiously substitute them for the laws revealed to
Mohammed from on high. Accept this gift and study it."

With the sandalwood case containing the precious volume of the law
under his arm, Mr. Middleton departed. After the lapse of three days,
finding no immediate prospect of learning the Arabic language, and
fearful of offending Prince Achmed if he returned the book, and having
no possible use for it, he took it to a bibliophile, who exclaiming
that it was the handiwork of a Mohammedan monastery of Damascus and
bore on the cover the monogram of the fifth Fatimite caliph, and was
therefore a thousand years old, he told Mr. Middleton that though it
was worth much more, he could offer him but five hundred dollars,
which sum the astonished friend of Achmed received in a daze, and
departed to invest in a well located lot in a new suburb. Having no
use for the sandalwood case after the Koran had been disposed of, he
presented it to a young lady of Englewood as a receptacle for
handkerchiefs.

Mr. Middleton said nothing of these transactions when on the appointed
evening he once more sat in the presence of the urbane prince of the
tribe of Al-Yam. Having handed him a bowl of delicately flavored
sherbet, Achmed began to narrate The Adventure of the Virtuous
Spinster.

_The Adventure of the Virtuous Spinster._

Miss Almira Johnson was a virtuous spinster, aged thirty-nine, who
lived in a highly respectable boarding-house on the north side. Her
days she spent in keeping the books of a large leather firm, in an
office which she shared with two m