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Updated: May 5, 2025
At last I took my leave and went home, for I was anxious to see Gregorios, and to hear from him what plan he proposed to adopt for the solution of our difficulties at this critical moment. I found him waiting for me. "Have you made up your mind?" I asked. Balsamides was sitting beside his table with a book. He looked even paler than usual, and was evidently more excited than he liked to own.
"Be serious," said I. "Do you think I would be so foolish as to interest myself in this business unless I believed that it could be cleared of all mystery and explained?" "You have been in England," retorted Gregorios. "That will explain any kind of insanity. Do you want me to pester every office in the government with new inquiries? It will do no good. Everything has been tried.
The Khanum drank the hot coffee eagerly, and, placing the huge amber mouthpiece against her lips, began to inhale the smoke. Gregorios followed her example. "What is this you say of Satan destroying the power of your medicine?" asked Laleli, presently. "It is the truth, Khanum Effendim," answered Balsamides, solemnly.
"Good God!" exclaimed a tremulous voice. "Have the Russians taken Constantinople at last? Who are you?" "I am Paul Griggs. We have come to set you free." The heavy door yielded and moved. I rushed in, and in another moment I clasped the lost man's hand. Gregorios, far more prudent than I, held Selim by the collar as a man would hold a dog, for he feared some treachery. "Is it really you?"
Laleli saw him take the syringe from the case, and her eyes glittered with the anticipation of immediate relief. "Speak," said Gregorios, "confess your sin, and you shall have rest." "What am I to confess?" asked the old woman, hungrily watching the tiny instrument in his fingers. "This," answered Balsamides, lowering his voice.
It had probably not suggested itself to any one, because strangers are never admitted from that side, and because the door is almost always closed. Gregorios did not refer to the subject again that evening, but amused himself by asking me all manner of questions about the state of England. We fell to talking about European politics, and the hours passed very pleasantly until midnight.
But Gregorios was not destined to stand in need of so much ingenuity. He would never have made the attempt in which he was now engaged unless he had anticipated success, and he was not surprised when a tall, smooth-faced negro, of hideous countenance but exceedingly well dressed, put his head into the shop. He saluted Gregorios and entered.
"That means that you will not, of course. Very well. It is your affair. Curiosity is the mother of deception. Will you give me the Rhodes for ten pounds?" They began to bargain again, but nothing was concluded on that day, for Gregorios had got what he wanted, and was anxious to reach home and to see me.
"But I strongly advise you to decide at once. You are beginning to suffer, and I warn you that unless you confess you shall not have the medicine." "I lived without it until you came," answered Laleli. "I can live without it now, if it is my fate." Her voice trembled convulsively, but she finished her sentence by a great effort. "It is not your fate," returned Gregorios.
Still Laleli dragged herself along, apparently trying to speak, but uttering only inarticulate sounds. As she got nearer to him, still on her hands and knees, Gregorios thought he had never seen so awful a sight.
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