command of the King, I caught
sight of the chain beneath his robe. Can you guess the rest?"

"Not quite," I answered, for I wished to hear the tale in his own words.

"Well, Master, when I was walking with Houman after he had put you in
the boat, I asked him about this seal. He showed it to me and said that
he who bore it was for the time the king of all the Empire of the
East. It seems that there is but one such seal which has descended from
ancient days from king to king, and that of it every officer, great or
small, has an impress in all lands. If the seal is produced to him,
he compares it with the impress and should the two agree, he obeys the
order that is brought as though the King had given it in person. When
we reached the Court doubtless Houman would have returned the seal, but
seeing that the King was, or feigned to be drunk, waited for fear lest
it should be lost, and with it his life. Then he was seized as you saw,
and in his terror forgot all about the seal, as did the King and his
officers."

"But, surely, Bes, those who took Houman to the boat would have removed
it."

"Master, even the most clear-sighted do not see well at night. At any
rate my hope was that they had not done so, and that is why I waded out
to prick the eyes of Houman. Moreover, as I had hoped, so it was; there
beneath his robe I saw the chain. Then I spoke to him, saying,

"'I am come to put out your eyes, as you deserve, seeing how you have
treated my master. Still I will spare you at a price. Give me the King's
ancient white seal that opens all doors, and I will only make a pretence
of blinding you. Moreover I will cut your cords nearly through, so
that when the night comes you can break them, roll into the river and
escape.'

"'Take it if you can,' he said, 'and use it to injure or destroy that
accursed one.'"

"So you took it, Bes."

"Yes, Master, but not easily. Remember, it was on a chain about the
man's neck, and I could not draw it over his head, for, like his hands,
his throat was tied by a cord, as you remember yours was."

"I remember very well," I said, "for my throat is still sore from the
rope that ran to the same staples to which my hands were fastened."

"Yes, Master, and therefore if I drew the chain off his neck, it would
still have been on the ropes. I thought of trying to cut it with the
knife, but this was not easy because it is thick, and if I had dragged
it up on the blade of the knife it would have be