I set to work eagerly.

"Now," Smith continued, "put that filthy gag in place again--but you
need not strap it so tightly! Directly they find that you are alive,
they will treat you the same--you understand? She has been here three
times--"

"Karamaneh?"...

"Ssh!"

I heard a sound like the opening of a distant door.

"Quick! the straps of the gag!" whispered Smith, "and pretend to recover
consciousness just as they enter--"

Clumsily I followed his directions, for my fingers were none too steady,
replaced the lamp in my pocket, and threw myself upon the floor.

Through half-shut eyes, I saw the door open and obtained a glimpse of
a desolate, empty passage beyond. On the threshold stood Karamaneh. She
held in her hand a common tin oil lamp which smoked and flickered with
every movement, filling the already none too cleanly air with an odor of
burning paraffin. She personified the outre; nothing so incongruous as
her presence in that place could well be imagined. She was dressed as I
remembered once to have seen her two years before, in the gauzy silks of
the harem. There were pearls glittering like great tears amid the cloud
of her wonderful hair. She wore broad gold bangles upon her bare arms,
and her fingers were laden with jewelry. A heavy girdle swung from her
hips, defining the lines of her slim shape, and about one white ankle
was a gold band.

As she appeared in the doorway I almost entirely closed my eyes, but my
gaze rested fascinatedly upon the little red slippers which she wore.

Again I detected the exquisite, elusive perfume, which, like a breath
of musk, spoke of the Orient; and, as always, it played havoc with my
reason, seeming to intoxicate me as though it were the very essence of
her loveliness.

But I had a part to play, and throwing out one clenched hand so that my
fist struck upon the floor, I uttered a loud groan, and made as if to
rise upon my knees.

One quick glimpse I had of her wonderful eyes, widely opened and turned
upon me with such an enigmatical expression as set my heart leaping
wildly--then, stepping back, Karamaneh placed the lamp upon the boards
of the passage and clapped her hands.

As I sank upon the floor in assumed exhaustion, a Chinaman with
a perfectly impassive face, and a Burman, whose pock-marked, evil
countenance was set in an apparently habitual leer, came running into
the room past the girl.

With a hand which trembled violently, she held the lamp whilst