Now the door swung open, and a portly figure entered quickly. For so
large a man Prince Kaid was light and subtle in his movements. His face
was mobile, his eye keen and human.
Achmet salaamed low. "The gardens of the First Heaven be thine, and the
uttermost joy, Effendina," he said elaborately.
"A thousand colours to the rainbow of thy happiness," answered Kaid
mechanically, and seated himself cross-legged on a divan, taking a
narghileh from the black slave who had glided ghostlike behind him.
"What hour didst thou find him? Where hast thou placed him?" he added,
after a moment.
Achmet salaamed once more. "I have burrowed without ceasing, but the
holes are empty, Effendina," he returned, abjectly and nervously.
He had need to be concerned. The reply was full of amazement and anger.
"Thou hast not found him? Thou hast not brought Nahoum to me?" Kaid's
eyes were growing reddish; no good sign for those around him, for any
that crossed him or his purposes.
"A hundred eyes failed to search him out. Ten thousand piastres did not
find him; the kourbash did not reveal him.
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