“Do not worry about me in any way, for I am safe and happy. Of my own free will I have become an inmate1 of the harem of the Khan.”
Aunt Lucy gave a shriek2 and fell over backward upon the floor, where her heels beat a tattoo3 against the rug. No one paid the slightest attention to her. The Colonel stared straight ahead with stony4 eyes and a look of horror upon his face. The doctor stalked restlessly up and down the room with his hands thrust deep in his pockets, whistling softly to himself. Allison, stolid5 and unimpressed, lighted his pipe and puffed6 away with supreme7 nonchalance8. Bessie had not yet recovered from the adventure of the morning. She lay face downward upon a divan9 and wept miserably10.
Under these adverse11 circumstances Aunt Lucy’s fainting fit vanished. She sat up and glared wildly upon the perturbed12 group.
“This,” she announced, “is the result of travelling in heathenish and godless countries. We are ruined!”
Her brother waved his hand impatiently, but no one answered in words.
“And to think how that demure13 minx Janet has deceived me all these days and made me believe she was respectable! Oh, it is terrible.”
“Shut up!” said Allison, rudely.
“You’re a beast, that’s what you are!” retorted the old lady, white with fury, “and a fit brother for your designing sister. And to think that I’ve got myself mixed up with such a scandal. An American girl the inmate of a harem! What will be said when this news reaches New York? And Colonel Moore an officer of the great Metropolitan14 Construction Syndicate!”
“See here, Lucy,” warned her brother, “you keep mum until you know what you’re talking about. Janet is as good a girl as ever breathed.”
“Only de best gets into de khan’s harem,” remarked David, consolingly.
Aunt Lucy turned upon him like a tigress.
“It’s your doing, I’ll be bound,” she cried. “You’re a traitor15!”
David winced16 a little, and studied the pattern in the rug.
“Now,” said the doctor, “it strikes me you’re getting nearer to the truth, except that David is too much of a fool to be a scoundrel, and so may escape suspicion. But I’m inclined to think there has been treachery in some quarter, and that Janet has been forcibly seized by the Khan. I wish there was an American or English consul17 in this forsaken18 town.”
“Her letter says she went willingly,” snapped Aunt Lucy, and the Colonel groaned19 at the suggestion.
“It was probably written under threat of death or torture,” replied the doctor, positively20. “These Orientals are equal to any villainy. Knowing Janet as we do, and believing in her modesty21 and truth, it is absurd to interpret her letter in any other light. What do you think, Bessie?”
The girl shook her head, wiping the tears from her reddened eyelids23.
“I don’t know, papa. There’s some dreadful mystery about it, I’m sure.”
“The thing to do,” said Aunt Lucy, “is to appeal to Prince Kasam. I never trusted that young man very much, but he’s been decently brought up in a civilized24 country, which is more than you can say for that awful khan. In the circumstances the Prince ought to be willing to help us rescue Janet.”
The Colonel stood up and brushed the gray locks from his forehead.
“I’ll find a way to get to Kasam at once,” he said, in a harsh and strained voice. “In which direction did you tell me, Bessie, his camp lies?”
She rose and walked steadily25 to the Colonel, putting her hands upon his shoulders and looking full into his eyes.
“I have not told you all the truth of what happened this morning,” she began, bravely. “It was Kasam and his men who first attacked us, and Kasam who bore Janet away while the others tried to kill Dirrag. Afterward26 the Khan appeared and rode after them, rescuing Janet just as they reached the top of the hill. Kasam must have been killed or dreadfully hurt, for we did not see him again. The rest happened as I told you. Dirrag cut down the two men and saluted27 the Khan as he rode by with Janet in his arms. I must have fainted just then, for I knew nothing of this; but Dirrag afterward assisted me to get home, and when I wept at the capture of Janet he told me to dry my eyes, for she had smiled when the Khan kissed her.”
“Impossible!” cried the Colonel.
“Dirrag is very honest,” returned Bessie, hesitatingly, “and he thinks the Khan carried her to his harem that she might be safe from Kasam. I will not say she did not object; but, Colonel, there has been something strange about Janet for some time—something I could not understand.”
“I thought she was happier,” said the Colonel, huskily; “that she was learning to forget.”
“She has laughed in her sleep,” continued Bessie; “she, who used to be so sad and melancholy29. And only this morning she sang an old song as we galloped30 away from the town, and semed as light hearted as a child.”
The Colonel buried his face in his hands, and a sob31 rose to this throat.
“Oh, my girl—my dear little girl!” he murmured; “what can I do to save you!”
“Cheer up, Dad,” said Allison, brusquely. “There’s no use taking it so hard. What does it matter whether Janet’s in a harem or anywhere else, so long as she’s happy and content? My opinion is we’re wasting our pity on her. She isn’t the sort to write a letter under compulsion, and you know it as well as I do.”
“Really,” the doctor remarked, “I can’t understand the thing at all. If the girl had ever seen Ahmed Khan she might have fallen in love with him. It’s common report that he’s a fine looking fellow. But until today they were perfect strangers. H—m! Let me see. Wasn’t there some old romance in Janet’s life—some trouble or other?”
“Yes,” said the Colonel. “But that is past and gone—years ago. Yet she brooded upon it, doctor, and it may have driven her mad.”
“I’ve detected no signs of insanity32 in your daughter,” returned the doctor, rather nettled33 at the suggestion. “But Allison is right; there’s no use borrowing trouble over the matter until we know more. Perhaps we shall think of some way to communicate with her, or to force the Khan to give her up. We seem absurdly helpless in this tyrant-ridden town, although were we in any other country on earth we might easily assemble an army and rescue your daughter by force of arms, provided diplomacy34 failed. Kasam seems as impossible as the Khan, for Bessie’s story leads me to suspect he’s the greater scoundrel of the two.”
David had appeared ill at ease during this conversation. Now he rose from his seat and after a half frightened glance around announced in a timid voice:
“I haf a secret!”
“Has it anything to do with Janet Moore?” asked Aunt Lucy, in her sharpest tone.
“It iss a fine secret,” said David, fixing his little eyes upon the Colonel, “ant it is vort’ a t’ousand fillibees.”
The old lady gave a snort of contempt, but the Colonel seemed interested, and as he shrewdly examined the Jew’s face he noted35 great
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