iful
companion in their proposed voyage, and that she would be on board
before the morning.

Aphiz was now all impatience. He could scarcely wait for the hours
to pass that should bring about the period allotted for the attempt
to release her whom he so fondly, and until now so hopelessly,
loved. In the meantime the good Armenian physician, with redoubled
interest, now that he had learned Aphiz's story, sought the Sultan's
harem, where he quietly broached to Komel the plan that had been
agreed upon whereby she should be transported once more to her
distant home and the scenes of her childhood.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE ESCAPE FROM THE HAREM.

On one of those soft and glorious nights such as occur so often
beneath the eastern skies, when there was no moon and yet a blaze of
light pouring down from the myriad of bright stars, that one would
not have missed the absence of the Queen of Night; the walks of the
Sultan's gardens, fragrant with flowers and sweet blossoms, were
drinking in of the dewy hour, still and silently, save at the point
where we once before introduced the person of Komel. The spot from
whence she had listened to that tender and dearly loved song of her
native valley, and nearly in the same place she sat now, again
evidently listening and expecting the coming of some person or
preconcerted signal.

On the extended branch of the nearest cypress hung the half-witted
boy by one arm, which he had cast over the limb, and from whence he
was now oscillating like a pendulum, his head hanging down upon his
breast, and the rest of his limbs as moveless seemingly, as though
he had hung there for months. It was one of the queer odd freaks
that he was so often performing, for what purpose no one knew, and
there he hung still, while the slave listened and cast anxious
glances at the stone wall that forms the sea side of the seraglio
gardens.

But no sound greeted her ears save the never ceasing babbling of the
fountains, and now and then the soft plaintive cry of some night
bird that, wakeful while most of the species slept, warbled its
notes to the stars. Once she thought she heard the muffled sound of
oars, and started to her feet, but the noise soon died away in the
distance, and she relapsed again into the same attitude of impatient
and anxious anticipation. Out from under the apparently drooping and
senseless eyelids of the idiot, a quick thoughtful glance was turned
upon her at every motion she made,