al to one who has had his tongue split. "My master awaits a
flower in truth, being even now o'ercome in sleep in the waiting, but
the flower will show a warrant the which will pass her through this
door of which I am the guardian. By Allah! it is not opened at the
tapping of every chance weed which the wind of poverty may cause to
flutter across this path!"

Things began to look somewhat awkward for the humble flower wilting on
the marble step, until her friend, speaking suddenly and sharply, saved
the situation by leaning down and quite violently snatching something
from the little hand fumbling most awkwardly among the many feminine
draperies.

"Behold the warrant, O! unbeliever. So desirous of this maiden is thy
master, upon whom may the blessing of Allah rest, that he even gave
unto her father the ring of emerald from off his right hand. Art
satisfied, or is't best to risk the tempest by still further
questioning and delay!"

The guardian of the door, not a little astounded, snatched in his turn
at the jewel, and seeming perfectly satisfied after a prolonged
scrutiny, stood aside and motioned the two to enter, and shutting the
door behind them and ordering them to stand where they were until he
returned from his dangerous mission of disobeying, by breaking in upon
his master's privacy, stalked off with much dignity into the perfumed,
half-lit, enormous hall.

Now if only he had been afflicted with one iota of the curiosity
apportioned by time to Lot's wife, that man might have been alive even
to this day. But he neither turned his head nor pricked his ears,
thereby failing to note that with the lightning methods of the eel the
comely flower had in some miraculous way slipped from her all
enveloping sheath of draperies to stand revealed a wiry,
glistening-with-oil youth, who, without a moment's pause, with knife in
teeth, and as silently as a lizard, glided across the dividing yards of
Persian carpet separating him from his quarry.

Across the hall and through endless deserted rooms they passed, the
companion of the camouflage maiden bringing up the rear. Right to the
far quarter of the house they went, one after the other, and the
guardian of the house felt little more than a pin-prick when, just as
his hand pulled aside the curtain screening a door, the youth behind
him raising his right arm drove the knife clean under the left shoulder
blade, catching the dead body as it fell backwards to lay it
noise