play to _you_!" insinuated Horace. "Come, you know very
well you can do it if you only choose."

"It may be as thou sayest. But I do not choose."

"Then I think," said Horace, "that, considering the obligation you admit
yourself you are under to me, I have a right to know the reason--the
_real_ reason--why you refuse."

"Thy claim is not without justice," answered the Jinnee, after a pause,
"nor can I decline to gratify thee."

"That's right," cried Horace; "I knew you'd see it in the proper light
when it was once put to you. Now, don't lose any more time, but restore
that unfortunate man at once, as you've promised."

"Not so," said the Jinnee; "I promised thee a reason for my refusal--and
that thou shalt have. Know then, O my son, that this indiscreet one had,
by some vile and unhallowed arts, divined the hidden meaning of what was
written upon the seal of the bottle wherein I was confined, and was
preparing to reveal the same unto all men."

"What would it matter to you if he did?"

"Much--for the writing contained a false and lying record of my
actions."

"If it is all lies, it can't do you any harm. Why not treat them with
the contempt they deserve?"

"They are not _all_ lies," the Jinnee admitted reluctantly.

"Well, never mind. Whatever you've done, you've expiated it by this
time."

"Now that Suleyman is no more, it is my desire to seek out my kinsmen of
the Green Jinn, and live out my days in amity and honour. How can that
be if they hear my name execrated by all mortals?"

"Nobody would think of execrating you about an affair three thousand
years old. It's too stale a scandal."

"Thou speakest without understanding. I tell thee that if men knew but
the half of my misdoings," said Fakrash, in a tone not altogether free
from a kind of sombre complacency, "the noise of them would rise even
unto the uppermost regions, and scorn and loathing would be my portion."

"Oh, it's not so bad as all that," said Horace, who had a private
impression that the Jinnee's "past" would probably turn out to be
chiefly made up of peccadilloes. "But, anyway, I'm sure the Professor
will readily agree to keep silence about it; and, as you have of course,
got the seal in your own possession again----"

"Nay; the seal is still in his possession, and it is naught to me where
it is deposited," said Fakrash, "since the only mortal who hath
deciphered it is now a dumb animal."

"Not at all," said Horace. "There are severa