but whose name
shall not be divulged here, was so carried away by her feelings as to
hurl a heavy cut-glass bottle of smelling-salts at Horace's offending
head. Fortunately for him, it missed him and only caught one of the
officials (Horace was not in a mood to notice details very accurately,
but he had a notion that it was the City Remembrancer) somewhere about
the region of the watch-pocket.

"_Will_ you hear me out?" Ventimore shouted. "I'm not trifling. I
haven't told you yet what was inside the bottle. When I opened it, I
found ..."

He got no farther--for, as the words left his lips, he felt himself
seized by the collar of his robe and lifted off his feet by an agency he
was powerless to resist.

Up and up he was carried, past the great chandeliers, between the carved
and gilded rafters, pursued by a universal shriek of dismay and horror.
Down below he could see the throng of pale, upturned faces, and hear the
wild screams and laughter of several ladies of great distinction in
violent hysterics. And the next moment he was in the glass lantern, and
the latticed panes gave way like tissue paper as he broke through into
the open air, causing the pigeons on the roof to whirr up in a flutter
of alarm.

Of course, he knew that it was the Jinnee who was abducting him in this
sensational manner, and he was rather relieved than alarmed by Fakrash's
summary proceeding, for he seemed, for once, to have hit upon the best
way out of a situation that was rapidly becoming impossible.

CHAPTER XVII

HIGH WORDS

Once outside in the open air, the Jinnee "towered" like a pheasant shot
through the breast, and Horace closed his eyes with a combined
swing-switchback-and-Channel-passage sensation during a flight which
apparently continued for hours, although in reality it probably did not
occupy more than a very few seconds. His uneasiness was still further
increased by his inability to guess where he was being taken to--for he
felt instinctively that they were not travelling in the direction of
home.

At last he felt himself set down on some hard, firm surface, and
ventured to open his eyes once more. When he realised where he actually
was, his knees gave way under him, and he was seized with a sudden
giddiness that very nearly made him lose his balance. For he found
himself standing on a sort of narrow ledge or cornice immediately under
the ball at the top of St. Paul's.

Many feet beneath him spread the dull, lea