rst heard afar
the pant of the mysterious jinni. Before he or his companions descried
the motor-boat, however, Gaston, rounding a sharp curve above the island
of Umm-un-Nakhl, caught sight of the sweeps of the barge flashing in the
moonlight. The unexpected view of that flash was not disagreeable to
Gaston. For, as Gaston put it to himself, he was sad--despite the
efforts of his friend, the telegraph operator at Ahwaz, to cheer him up.
It is true that the operator, who was Irish and a man of heart, had
accorded him but a limited amount of cheer, together with hard words not
a few. Recalling them, Gaston picked up a knife that lay on the seat
beside him--an odd curved knife of the country, in a leather sheath.
There is no reason why I should conceal the fact that this knife was a
gift from Gaston's Bakhtiari henchman, who had presented it to Gaston,
with immense solemnity, on hearing that there was a war in Firengistan
and that the young men of the oil works were going to it. What had
become of that type of a Bakhtiari, Gaston wondered? Then, spying the
flash of those remembered oars, he bethought him of the seigneur of a
Brazilian whose hospitable yacht, he had reason to know, was not
destitute of cheer.

When he was near enough the barge to make out the shadow of the high
beak on the moonlit water he cut off the motor. The sweeps forthwith
ceased to flash. Gaston then called out the customary salutation. It was
answered, as before, by the deep voice of the Brazilian. He stood at the
rail of the barge as the motor-boat glided alongside.

"Ah, _mon vieux_, you are alone this time?" said Magin genially. "Where
are the others?"

"I do not figure to myself," answered Gaston, "that you derange yourself
to inquire for my sacred devil of a Bakhtiari, who has taken the key of
the fields. As for Monsieur Guy, the Englishman you saw the other time,
whose name does not pronounce itself, he has gone to the war. I just
took him and three others to Ahwaz, where they meet more of their
friends and all go together on the steamer to Mohamera."

"Really! And did you hear any news at Ahwaz?"

"The latest is that England has declared war."

"Tiens!" exclaimed Magin. His voice was extraordinarily loud and deep in
the stillness of the river. It impressed Gaston, who sat looking up at
the dark figure in front of the ghostly Lurs. What types, with their
black hats of a theater! He hoped the absence of M'sieu Guy and the
Brazilian's evid