hain supporting the lamp above
my head, and with the garish shade swinging and spinning wildly, clung
there looking down at me like an acrobat on a trapeze. The tiny, bluish
face, completely framed in grotesque whiskers, enhanced the illusion of
an acrobatic comedian. Never for a moment did it release its hold upon
the key-ring.

My suspense now was intolerable. I feared to move, lest, alarming the
marmoset, it should run off again, taking the keys with it. So as I lay
there, looking up at the little creature swinging above me, the second
wonder of the night came to pass.

A voice that I could never forget, strive how I would, a voice that
haunted my dreams by night, and for which by day I was ever listening,
cried out from some adjoining room.

"Ta'ala hina!" it called. "Ta'ala hina, Peko!"

It was Karamaneh!

The effect upon the marmoset was instantaneous. Down came the bunch of
keys upon one side of the shade, almost falling on my head, and down
leaped the ape upon the other. In two leaps it had traversed the room
and had vanished through the curtained doorway.

If ever I had need of coolness it was now; the slightest mistake would
be fatal. The keys had slipped from the mattress of the divan, and now
lay just beyond reach of my fingers. Rapidly I changed my position, and
sought, without undue noise, to move the keys with my foot.

I had actually succeeded in sliding them back on to the mattress, when,
unheralded by any audible footstep, Karamaneh came through the doorway,
holding the marmoset in her arms. She wore a dress of fragile muslin
material, and out from its folds protruded one silk-stockinged foot,
resting in a high-heeled red shoe....

For a moment she stood watching me, with a sort of enforced composure;
then her glance strayed to the keys lying upon the floor. Slowly, and
with her eyes fixed again upon my face, she crossed the room, stooped,
and took up the key-ring.

It was one of the poignant moments of my life; for by that simple act
all my hopes had been shattered!

Any poor lingering doubt that I may have had, left me now. Had the
slightest spark of friendship animated the bosom of Karamaneh most
certainly she would have overlooked the presence of the keys--of the
keys which represented my one hope of escape from the clutches of the
fiendish Chinaman.

There is a silence more eloquent than words. For half a minute or more,
Karamaneh stood watching me--forcing herself to watch me--and I