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ead for us the inscription on the figure which identified it as a Mongol demon called Erlik, the Prince of Darkness. The other object of interest in the box was the manuscript diary kept by this Herr Wilner to within a few moments of his death. This I have often heard read aloud by my father, but I forget much of it now, and I never understood it all, because I was too young. Now, here is the curious thing about it all. The first time you spoke to me of the Princess Naia Mistchenka, I had a hazy idea that her name seemed familiar to me. And ever since I have known her, now and then I found myself trying to recollect where I had heard that name, even before I heard it from you. Suddenly, one evening about a week ago, it came to me that I had heard both the names, Naia and Mistchenka, when I was a child. Also the name Erlik. The two former names occur in Herr Wilner's diary; the latter I heard from the Chinese missionary years ago; and that is why they seemed so familiar to me. It is so long since I have read the diary that I can't remember the story in which the names Naia and Mistchenka are concerned. As I recollect, it was a tragic story that used to thrill me. At any rate, I didn't speak of this to Princess Naia; but about a week ago there were a few people dining here with us--among others an old Turkish Admiral, Murad Pasha, who took me out. And as soon as I heard _his_ name I thought of that diary; and I am sure it was mentioned in it. Anyway, he happened to speak of Trebizond; and, naturally, I said that my father had been a missionary there many years ago. As this seemed to interest him, and because he questioned me, I told him my father's name and all that I knew in regard to his career as a missionary in the Trebizond district. And, somehow--I don't exactly recollect how it came about--I spoke of Herr Wilner, and his death at Gallipoli, and how his effects came into my father's possession. And because the old, sleepy-eyed Admiral seemed so interested and amused, I told him about Herr Wilner's box and his diary and the plans and maps and photographs with which I used to play as a little child. After dinner, Princess Naia asked me what it was I had been telling Murad Pasha to wake him up so completely and to keep him so amused. So I merely said that I had been telling the Admiral about my childhood in Brookhollow. Naturally neither she nor I thought about the incident any further. Murad did n
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