Suddenly he came to himself with a start. "I"ll try it!" he cried. "I can"t and won"t stand this!" And he rushed after them bareheaded.

"Professor!" he said breathlessly, as he caught him up, "one moment. On second thoughts, I _will_ tell you my secret, if you will promise me a patient hearing."

"The pavement is hardly the place for confidences," replied the Professor, "and, if it were, your costume is calculated to attract more remark than is desirable. My wife and daughter have gone on--if you will permit me, I will overtake them--I shall be at home to-morrow morning, should you wish to see me."

"No--to-night, to-night!" urged Horace. "I can"t sleep in that infernal place with this on my mind. Put Mrs. Futvoye and Sylvia into a cab, Professor, and come back. It"s not late, and I won"t keep you long--but for Heaven"s sake, let me tell you my story at once."

Probably the Professor was not without some curiosity on the subject; at all events he yielded. "Very well," he said, "go into the house and I will rejoin you presently. Only remember," he added, "that I shall accept no statement without the fullest proof. Otherwise you will merely be wasting your time and mine."

"Proof!" thought Horace, gloomily, as he returned to his Arabian halls, "The only decent proof I could produce would be old Fakrash, and he"s not likely to turn up again--especially now I want him."

A little later the Professor returned, having found a cab and despatched his women-folk home. "Now, young man," he said, as he unwound his wrapper and seated himself on the divan by Horace"s side, "I can give you just ten minutes to tell your story in, so let me beg you to make it as brief and as comprehensible as you can."

It was not exactly an encouraging invitation in the circ.u.mstances, but Horace took his courage in both hands and told him everything, just as it had happened.

"And that"s your story?" said the Professor, after listening to the narrative with the utmost attention, when Horace came to the end.

"That"s my story, sir," said Horace. "And I hope it has altered your opinion of me."

"It has," replied the Professor, in an altered tone; "it has indeed.

Yours is a sad case--a very sad case."

"It"s rather awkward, isn"t it? But I don"t mind so long as you understand. And you"ll tell Sylvia--as much as you think proper?"

"Yes--yes; I must tell Sylvia."

"And I may go on seeing her as usual?"

"Well--will you be guided by my advice--the advice of one who has lived more than double your years?"

"Certainly," said Horace.

"Then, if I were you, I should go away at once, for a complete change of air and scene."

"That"s impossible, sir--you forget my work!"

"Never mind your work, my boy: leave it for a while, try a sea-voyage, go round the world, get quite away from these a.s.sociations."

"But I might come across the Jinnee again," objected Horace; "_he"s_ travelling, as I told you."

"Yes, yes, to be sure. Still, I should go away. Consult any doctor, and he"ll tell you the same thing."

"Consult any---- Good G.o.d!" cried Horace; "I see what it is--you think I"m mad!"

"No, no, my dear boy," said the Professor, soothingly, "not mad--nothing of the sort; perhaps your mental equilibrium is just a trifle--it"s quite intelligible. You see, the sudden turn in your professional prospects, coupled with your engagement to Sylvia--I"ve known stronger minds than yours thrown off their balance--temporarily, of course, quite temporarily--by less than that."

"You believe I am suffering from delusions?"

"I don"t say that. I think you may see ordinary things in a distorted light."

"Anyhow, you don"t believe there really was a Jinnee inside that bottle?"

"Remember, you yourself a.s.sured me at the time you opened it that you found nothing whatever inside it. Isn"t it more credible that you were right then than that you should be right now?"

"Well," said Horace, "you saw all those black slaves; you ate, or tried to eat, that unutterably beastly banquet; you heard that music--and then there was the dancing-girl. And this hall we"re in, this robe I"ve got on--are _they_ delusions? Because if they are, I"m afraid you will have to admit that _you"re_ mad too."

"Ingeniously put," said the Professor. "I fear it is unwise to argue with you. Still, I will venture to a.s.sert that a strong imagination like yours, over-heated and saturated with Oriental ideas--to which I fear I may have contributed--is not incapable of unconsciously a.s.sisting in its own deception. In other words, I think that you may have provided all this yourself from various quarters without any clear recollection of the fact."

"That"s very scientific and satisfactory as far as it goes, my dear Professor," said Horace; "but there"s one piece of evidence which may upset your theory--and that"s this bra.s.s bottle."

"If your reasoning powers were in their normal condition," said the Professor, compa.s.sionately, "you would see that the mere production of an empty bottle can be no proof of what it contained--or, for that matter, that it ever contained anything at all!"

"Oh, I see _that_," said Horace; "but _this_ bottle has a stopper with what you yourself admit to be an inscription of some sort. Suppose that inscription confirms my story--what then? All I ask you to do is to make it out for yourself before you decide that I"m either a liar or a lunatic."

"I warn you," said the Professor, "that if you are trusting to my being unable to decipher the inscription, you are deceiving yourself. You represent that this bottle belongs to the period of Solomon--that is, about a thousand years B.C. Probably you are not aware that the earliest specimens of Oriental metal-work in existence are not older than the tenth century of our era. But, granting that it is as old as you allege, I shall certainly be able to read any inscription there may be on it. I have made out clay tablets in Cuneiform which were certainly written a thousand years before Solomon"s time."

"So much the better," said Horace. "I"m as certain as I can be that, whatever is written on that lid--whether it"s Phoenician, or Cuneiform, or anything else--must have some reference to a Jinnee confined in the bottle, or at least bear the seal of Solomon. But there the thing is--examine it for yourself."

"Not now," said the Professor; "it"s too late, and the light here is not strong enough. But I"ll tell you what I will do. I"ll take this stopper thing home with me, and examine it carefully to-morrow--on one condition."

"You have only to name it," said Horace.

"My condition is, that if I, and one or two other Orientalists to whom I may submit it, come to the conclusion that there is no real inscription at all--or, if any, that a date and meaning must be a.s.signed to it totally inconsistent with your story--you will accept our finding and acknowledge that you have been under a delusion, and dismiss the whole affair from your mind."

"Oh, I don"t mind agreeing to _that_," said Horace, "particularly as it"s my only chance."

"Very well, then," said the Professor, as he removed the metal cap and put it in his pocket; "you may depend upon hearing from me in a day or two. Meantime, my boy," he continued, almost affectionately, "why not try a short bicycle tour somewhere, hey? You"re a cyclist, I know--anything but allow yourself to dwell on Oriental subjects."

"It"s not so easy to avoid dwelling on them as you think!" said Horace, with rather a dreary laugh. "And I fancy, Professor, that--whether you like it or not--you"ll have to believe in that Jinnee of mine sooner or later."

"I can scarcely conceive," replied the Professor, who was by this time at the outer door, "any degree of evidence which could succeed in convincing me that your bra.s.s bottle had ever contained an Arabian Jinnee. However, I shall endeavour to preserve an open mind on the subject. Good evening to you."

As soon as he was alone, Horace paced up and down his deserted halls in a state of simmering rage as he thought how eagerly he had looked forward to his little dinner-party; how intimate and delightful it might have been, and what a monstrous and prolonged nightmare it had actually proved. And at the end of it there he was--in a fantastic, impossible dwelling, deserted by every one, his chances of setting himself right with Sylvia hanging on the slenderest thread; unknown difficulties and complications threatening him from every side!

He owed all this to Fakrash. Yes, that incorrigibly grateful Jinnee, with his antiquated notions and his high-flown professions, had contrived to ruin him more disastrously than if he had been his bitterest foe! Ah! if he could be face to face with him once more--if only for five minutes--he would be restrained by no false delicacy: he would tell him fairly and plainly what a meddling, blundering old fool he was. But Fakrash had taken his flight for ever: there were no means of calling him back--nothing to be done now but go to bed and sleep--if he could!

Exasperated by the sense of his utter helplessness, Ventimore went to the arch which led to his bed-chamber and drew the curtain back with a furious pull. And just within the archway, standing erect with folded arms and the smile of fatuous benignity which Ventimore was beginning to know and dread, was the form of Fakrash-el-Aamash, the Jinnee!

CHAPTER X

NO PLACE LIKE HOME!

"May thy head long survive!" said Fakrash, by way of salutation, as he stepped through the archway.

"You"re very good," said Horace, whose anger had almost evaporated in the relief of the Jinnee"s unexpected return, "but I don"t think any head can survive this sort of thing long."