twigs on his shoulders. He cast them
off, threw himself on his knees, kissed the hem of the holy man's
garments, and the back of his proffered hand.

We were descending the hill when a rustle in the bushes attracted me,
and a white face peeped out and a voice besought me in English to stop.
It was the Shereefa's London lady's-maid. She could not resist the
temptation of enjoying a few sentences with one of her own race. From
her I learned that there were twenty-seven Moorish women in her master's
household; that there was a tank at Wazan large enough to float a ship;
that her master had been married before, and had two sons and a lovely
Mahometan child, a daughter, to whom the Shereefa was teaching English
and the piano; "but remember, please," and here she grew important, and
had all the dignity of a retainer, with a great sense of what was due to
her caste and the proprieties, "that my mistress's children, if she have
any, will be Europeans!"

As we got back to our hotel the muezzins were summoning the faithful to
their vesper orisons, and Albert was moaning ruefully under the
sideboard. Mrs. Captain had out her sweetly pretty pet at once, and
covered him with caresses and endearments.

"Somebody has given him something that has disagreed with him. Was it
you?" she said to me, and there was that in her tone which made me quake
in my shoes.

Meekly and truthfully I protested that I had not; I had fed him in the
morning in her own presence; the darling was in his usual health and
spirits when we left, but--intercede for me, Puck, and you aerial imps
of mischief, for no other spirit will--I could not help murmuring in
audible soliloquy, "The carcase of that mongoose, which was on the
square outside this morning, is no longer there."

The scene that followed, to borrow the hackneyed phrase, beggars
description. The house was turned upside down; to my mental vision arose
sal volatile and burnt feathers, swoons and hysterics. Mahomet's dove
alone can tell how all might have ended had not the Frenchman suggested
a bolus. Captain No. 1 and I were commissioned to inquire into the
mystery of the disappearance of that baleful mongoose. When we got out
of earshot of the hotel there was the popping of a cork, and we emptied
effervescing beakers to the speedy recovery of Albert the Beloved.
Certes, that bull-dog had a very bad fit of dyspepsia; but the bolus did
him a world of good, and before we retired to rest we had the fel