the cave of the oracle, and then bid you good night."

The trio proceeded along old Bond Street. Quentin Gray regarded the
story of Kazmah as a very poor lie devised on the spur of the moment.
If he had been less infatuated, his natural sense of dignity must
have dictated an offer to release Mrs. Irvin from her engagement. But
jealousy stimulates the worst instincts and destroys the best. He
was determined to attach himself as closely as the old Man of the
Sea attached himself to Es-Sindibad, in order that the lie might
be unmasked. Mrs. Irvin's palpable embarrassment and nervousness he
ascribed to her perception of his design.

A group of shop girls and others waiting for buses rendered it
impossible for the three to keep abreast, and Gray, falling to the rear,
stepped upon the foot of a little man who was walking close behind them.

"Sorry, sir," said the man, suppressing an exclamation of pain--for the
fault had been Gray's.

Gray muttered an ungenerous acknowledgment, all anxiety to regain the
side of Mrs. Irvin; for she seemed to be speaking rapidly and excitedly
to Sir Lucien.

He recovered his place as the two turned in at a lighted doorway. Upon
the wall was a bronze plate bearing the inscription:

KAZMAH
Second Floor

Gray fully expected Mrs. Irvin to suggest that he should return later.
But without a word she began to ascend the stairs. Gray followed, Sir
Lucien standing aside to give him precedence. On the second floor was a
door painted in Oriental fashion. It possessed neither bell nor knocker,
but as one stepped upon the threshold this door opened noiselessly as
if dumbly inviting the visitor to enter the square apartment discovered.
This apartment was richly furnished in the Arab manner, and lighted by
a fine brass lamp swung upon chains from the painted ceiling. The
intricate perforations of the lamp were inset with colored glass, and
the result was a subdued and warm illumination. Odd-looking oriental
vessels, long-necked jars, jugs with tenuous spouts and squat bowls
possessing engraved and figured covers emerged from the shadows of
niches. A low divan with gaily colored mattresses extended from the
door around one corner of the room where it terminated beside a kind
of mushrabiyeh cabinet or cupboard. Beyond this cabinet was a long, low
counter laden with statuettes of Nile gods, amulets, mummy-beads and
little stoppered flasks of blue enamel ware. There were two glass cases
filled w