seemed to be enjoying the looks of astonishment on their faces
as they glanced at the different objects in the room.

"It is night," he said smilingly. "You need rest after your voyage.
Lie down on the beds and sleep. To-morrow you will be conducted to the
palace of the king."

With a bow he withdrew, and they heard a massive bolt slide into the
socket of a door hidden behind a curtain. The two men gazed at each
other without speaking, for a moment, and then they began to inspect the
room.

In alcoves half-veiled with silken curtains stood statues in gold and
bronze. The walls and ceilings were decorated with pictures unlike any
they had ever seen. Before one, the picture of an angel flying through a
dark, star-filled sky, they both stood enchanted.

"What is it?" asked Thorndyke, finding voice finally. "It is not done
with brush or pencil; the features seem alive and, by Jove, you can
actually see it breathe. Don't you see the clouds gliding by, and the
wings moving?"

"It is light--it is formed by light!" declared the other
enthusiastically, and he ran to the wall, about six feet from the
picture, and put his hand on a square metal box screwed to the wall.

"I have it," he said quickly, "come here!"

The Englishman advanced curiously and examined the box.

"Don't you see that tiny speck of light in the side towards the picture?
Well, the view is thrown from this box on the wall, and it is the motion
of the powerful light that gives apparent life to the angel. It is
wonderful."

In a commodious alcove, in a glow of pink light from above, was a
life-sized group of musicians--statues in colored metal of a Spanish
girl playing a mandora, an Italian with a slender calascione, a Russian
playing his jorbon, and an African playing a banjo. Luxurious couches
hung by spiral springs from the ceiling to a convenient height from the
floor, and here and there lay rugs of rare beauty and great ottomans of
artistic designs and colors.

"We ought to go to bed," proposed Thorndyke; "we shall have plenty of
time to see this Aladdin's land before we get away from it."

There were two large downy beds on quaintly wrought bedsteads of brass,
but the two captives decided to sleep together.

Thorndyke was the first to awaken. The lights in the candelabrum were
out, but a gray light came in at the top and bottom of the window. He
rose and drew the heavy curtain of one of the windows aside. He shrank
back in astonishment.