ss. The sheik being old, had twenty young wives;
and each of these wives had a lover. Came a time when the old sheik went
on a journey but returned a day before he was expected. Finding only one
of his wives in the harem, he called the masons and walled up the
windows and doors of the place, and that is why the nineteen pretty
murderers are hanging in a row."

"But," said Gud, "the story seems incomplete."

"Not at all," replied the Skeptic, "it is only that you do not
understand our laws and customs. These things are relative, you
know...."

"If you will listen well," spoke up the Cryptic, "I will expound
relativity to you. Now, if a man should buy a lot on time and the lot
had but two dimensions, then if time should be destroyed, could the real
estate agent justly demand payment for the lot?"

"Why, certainly," answered Gud. "Is not the Impossible Curve in the Nth
dimension?"

"But I have not told you yet," interrupted the Skeptic, "what the old
sheik did. You see, he felt so remorseful that he endowed a School of
Theological Mathematics, and each year he grants a doctor's dilemma to
the young man who can most nearly solve the problem of the trinity."

"What is the solution?" asked Gud.

"We do not know," replied the Skeptic, "for as yet no man has ever
solved it."

"But I was explaining relativity to our host," cried the Cryptic, "and
you interrupt me with this trifling gossip. Now, if a mass of silence
traveling at the speed of light, should be deflected by a caricature of
a phantom magnetic force, would the energy engendered--"

But at that moment the keeper of the caravansary appeared in the doorway
and looked upon Gud questioningly. Gud nodded to him approvingly,
whereupon five beautiful damsels entered dancing to flats and sharps,
and flute and cymbal.

So the discussion of relativity was forgotten, as all things of the
intellect are forgotten, when damsels young and beautiful dance to lute
and timbrel.

After there had been much joyous dancing, the Cynic plucked at Gud's
sleeve and asked:

"Who be these beautiful damsels, who dance so divinely, and whence came
they?"

And Gud made answer and said: "These damsels be the daughters of the
Pope, but I know not whence they came."

Chapter XLVII

And it came to pass that as Gud was making a long journey to a certain
place he neared a wayside inn, and being weary he entered and found six
characters drinking tea.

"Good evening," spoke Gu