Shortly after our entrance the performance terminated, and the
girl retired through a curtained doorway at the farther end of
the room. Our presence being now observed, suspicious glances
were cast in our direction, and a very aged man, who sat smoking
a narghli near the door by which the girl had made her exit,
gravely waved towards us the amber mouthpiece which he held in
his hand.
Harley walked straight across to him, I close at his heels. The
light of a lamp which hung close by fell fully upon my friend's
face; and, rising from his seat, the old man greeted him with the
dignified and graceful salutation of the East. At his request we
seated ourselves beside him, and, while we all three smoked
excellent Turkish cigarettes, Harley and he conversed in a low
tone. Suddenly, at some remark of my friend's, our strange host
rose to his feet, an angry frown contracting his heavy eyebrows.
Silence fell upon the company.
In a loud and peremptory voice he called out something in Arabic.
Instantly I detected a fellow near the entrance door, and whom I
had not hitherto observed, slipping furtively into the shadow,
with a view, as I thought, to secret departure. He seemed to be
deformed in some way and had the most evil, pock-marked face I
had ever beheld in my life.
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