busying himself with his stuffs.

"Then you will not swear?" I asked, putting the watch back in its place.

"I cannot swear to what I do not know. But I know the man who sold it to
me. He is the Lala of a harem, that is certain. I will not tell you his
name, nor the name of the Effendi to whose harem he belongs. Will you
buy my watch?--birindji--first quality--it is a beautiful thing. On my
honor, I have never seen a finer one, though it is of silver."

"Not unless you will tell me where it came from," I said firmly.
"Besides, I must show it to Vartan in Pera before I buy it. Perhaps the
works are not good."

"It is yours," said Marchetto. "Take it. When you have had it two days
you will buy it."

"How much?"

"Twenty liras,--twenty Turkish pounds," answered the Jew promptly.

"You mean five," I said. The watch was worth ten, I thought, about two
hundred and thirty francs.

"Impossible. I would rather let you take it as a gift. It is
birindji--first quality--upon my honor. I never saw"----

"Rubbish, Marchetto!" I exclaimed. "Let me take it to Vartan to be
examined. Then we will bargain."

"Take it," he answered. "Keep it as long as you like. I know you very
well, and I thank Heaven I have profited a little with you. But the
price of the watch is twenty pounds. You will pay it, and all your life
you will look at it and say, 'What an honest man Marchetto is!' By my
head--it is birindji--first quality--I never"----

"I have no doubt," I answered, cutting him short. I motioned to Paul
that we had better go: he rose without a word.

"Good-by, Marchetto," I said. "I will come back in a day or two and
bargain with you."

"It is birindji--by my head--first quality"--were the last words we
heard as we left the Jew amongst his stuffs. Then we threaded the
subterranean passages of the bazaar, and soon afterwards were walking in
the direction of Galata bridge, on our way back to Pera. At last Paul
spoke.

"We are on the scent," he said. "That fellow was speaking the truth when
he said the watch came from a harem. I could see it in his face. I begin
to think that Alexander did some absurdly rash thing,--followed some
veiled Turkish woman, as he would have done before if I had not stopped
him,--was seized, imprisoned in some cellar or other, and ultimately
murdered."

"It looks like it," I answered. "Of course I would not buy the watch
outright, because as long as it is not paid for I have a hold upon
Marchetto.