Sax Rohmer

“ From a locked closet the Assyrian girl took a wooden coffer, and before my gratified eyes began to count out upon the little table notes and gold until a pile lay there to have choked a miser with emotion. (The ready-money transactions of the East have always delighted me.) But, with the chinking of the last piece of gold upon the pile—
"There is no more," said the girl. "It is one hundred pounds short."
"It is more than enough!" cried Shahmarah. "I am ruined. Give me the veil and go."
"O vision of paradise," I exclaimed in anguish, "the merchant Ali Mohammed would never consent. ”

“ When, a few moments later, I stood in the lane outside the gardens of Yussuf Bey, and felt with my hand the fat wallet at my waist, I experienced a thrill of professional satisfaction, for had I not successfully negotiated a duplicate veil, embroidered with imitation pearls which the excellent Suleyman Levi by dint of four days of almost ceaseless toil had made for me? . . .
From the shadows of the opposite wall Abu Tabah stepped forth, stately.
"Quick!" I said. "I fear pursuit at any moment! Is the arabiyeh waiting?" ”

“ I crooned quaveringly, "O tree of pearls, the veil could never be thine; for the merchant Ali Mohammed, who awaits me at the gate, refuses to deliver it up until the price agreed upon has been placed in his hands."
"He is a Jew, and a son of Jews, who eats without washing! a devourer of pork, and an unclean insect," she cried. ”

“ A girl completely muffled up in many-hued shawls and scarves, so that her red-slippered feet and two bright eyes heavily darkened with kohl were the only two portions of her person visible, stood before me, her figure seeming childish beside that of the gross negro—whom I hated at sight because he reminded me of the one whom I had encountered in Abu Tabah's cellar. ”

“ A moment he hesitated, glancing doubtfully in the direction of the gate and back to my face; then—
"It is one of the people of Tir," he whispered, bending close to my ear; "of the evil ginn who are the creatures of Abu Tabah."
I was puzzled and expressed my doubt in words.
"Alas," replied Ali Mohammed, "the Imam Abu Tabah is neither a man nor an official; he is a magician."
"Indeed! then you speak of one bearing the curious name of Abu Tabah, who is at once the holder of a holy office and also one who has dealings with the ginn and the Efreets. This is strange, Ali Mohammed, my friend." ”

“ Appreciating something of my companion's natural impatience, I pressed into his hand the famous sandalwood box which once had reposed in the tarbush of Ali Mohammed. The carriage rolled around a comer and out into the lighted Sharia Mobadayan. Abu Tabah opened the sandalwood box, and then, reverently, the inner box of silver. Within shimmered the pearls of the sacred burko. ”

“ I assured him that I should regard such a proposal with the utmost affection.
"It would be necessary," he continued, "for you to disguise yourself as an aged woman and to visit the harem of a certain wealthy Bey. I have a ring which must be shown to the bowwab at the gate of the harem gardens upon which you would knock three times slowly and then twice rapidly. You would collect the thousand gineh agreed upon and would deliver to a certain lady a sandalwood box, the possession of which endangers my life and has brought about me the hosts of Abu Tabah the magician." ”

“ At a glance I knew the thing for one of the pair made by Suleyman Levi!
The truth crashed in upon my mind. Following my visit to the harem of Yussuf Bey, I had bestowed no more than a glance upon the envelope wherein, early on the morning of the same day, I had lovingly sealed the authentic veil; and a full hour had elapsed between the time of parting with the sugar-lipped one and my return to my rooms at the hotel.
I understood, now, why the lock of my attache-case had been out of order on that occasion . . . and I comprehended the sweet smile of Abu Tabah! ”

“ A mendicant of unwholesome aspect crouched in the shadow of the narrow gateway at the entrance to the Suk es-Saigh, or gold and silver bazaar, having his one serviceable eye fixed in a malevolent stare upon something or someone immediately behind me. ”

“ At nine o'clock on the following Monday night, an old Egyptian woman, enveloped from head to foot in a black tob and wearing a black crepe face-veil boasting a hideous brass nose-piece, halted before a doorway set in the wall guarding the great gardens of the palace of Yussuf Bey. ”

“ I had learned that the lady to whom Ali Mohammed would have had me deliver the yashmak was named Shahmarah and was evidently the favorite of the notorious Yussuf Bey. The complacent self-satisfaction of Abu Tabah amused me vastly, for he clearly entertained no doubts respecting his efficiency as a searcher. ”

“ It is part and parcel of my difficult profession to subdue all impulses and to think before acting. I sipped my coffee and selected a fresh cigarette from the silver box upon the rug beside me. In this interval I had decided that the one-eyed mendicant cherished in his bosom an implacable and murderous hatred for my genial friend, Ali Mohammed, the dealer in antiques ”

“ II In my capacity as Egyptian representative of Messrs. Moses, Murphy & Co., of Birmingham, I have sometimes found myself in awkward corners; but in Cairo, whether the native or European quarter, I had hitherto counted myself as safe as in London and safer than in Paris. The unexpectedness of the present outrage would have been sufficient to take my breath away without the agency of the filthy sack, which had apparently contained garlic at some time and now contained my head. ”

“ Shepheard's Hotel, Cairo, Egypt.
DEAR MR. NEVILLE KERNABY—
We are returning herewith the silken veil which you describe as "the authentic burko of the Seyyideh Nefiseh, stolen from her shrine in the Tombs of the Khalifs." Your statement that you can arrange for its purchase at the cost of one thousand pounds does not interest us, nor do we expect so high-salaried an expert as yourself to send us palpable and very inferior forgeries. We are manufacturers of duplicates, not buyers of same. ”

“ But my trade—for I do not blush to own myself a tradesman—has taught me caution. My ankles were free, it is true, but my hands were still tied behind me and over me towered the hideous bulk of the negro, ffhis might be modern Cairo, and no doubt there were British troops quartered at the Citadel and at the Kasr en-Nil ”

“ When its loss became known, I estimated that Messrs. Moses, Murphy & Co. could readily dispose of three duplicates through various channels to wealthy collectors whose enthusiasms were greater than their morality. ”