were his
sisters, who were being sold as slaves against his will. The good man
was interested in the story, and readily agreed to find us shelter if we
could manage to elude the watchfulness of our guards. The risk was
great, but it was our only chance.

'That night, when the whole caravan was fast asleep, we raised the upper
part of our boxes and by the help of Thelamis climbed silently out. We
next went back some distance along the way we had come, then, striking
into another road, reached at last the retreat prepared for us by the
dervish. Here we found food and rest, and I need not say what happiness
it was to be free once more.

'The dervish soon became a slave to our beauty, and the day after our
escape he proposed that we should allow him to conduct us to an inn
situated at a short distance, where we should find two Jews, owners of
precious talismans which did not really belong to them. "Try," said the
dervish, "by some means to get possession of them."

'The inn, though not on the direct road to Constantinople, was a
favourite one with merchants, owing to the excellence of the food, and
on our arrival we discovered at least six or eight other people who had
stopped for refreshment. They greeted us politely, and we sat down to
table together.

'In a short time the two men described by the dervish entered the room,
and at a sign from him my sister made room at her side for one, while I
did the same for the other.

'Now the dervish had happened to mention that "their brother had
danced." At the moment we paid no attention to this remark, but it came
back to our minds now, and we determined that they should dance also. To
accomplish this we used all our arts and very soon bent them to our
wills, so that they could refuse us nothing. At the end of the day we
remained possessors of the talismans and had left them to their fate,
while the Prince and Thelamis fell more in love with us than ever, and
declared that we were more lovely than any women in the world.

'The sun had set before we quitted the inn, and we had made no plans as
to where we should go next, so we readily consented to the prince's
proposal that we should embark without delay for the Isle of Black
Marble. What a place it was! Rocks blacker than jet towered above its
shores and shed thick darkness over the country. Our sailors had not
been there before and were nearly as frightened as ourselves, but thanks
to Thelamis, who undertook to be our pil