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Updated: June 21, 2025
Matthews' Persian servant handed up to Magin's butler a tray of tea glasses on which Matthews also noted a bottle. In honor of that bottle Gaston himself stood up and took off his greasy cap. "A thousand thanks, Monsieur," he said. "I have tasted nothing so good since I left France." "In that case, my friend," rejoined Magin in French as good as his English, "it is time you returned!"
Just then the silent Lur reappeared with a tray. "I say!" protested Matthews. "Whiskey and soda at five o'clock in the morning, in the middle of July " "1914, if you must be so precise!" added Magin jovially. "But why not?" he demanded. "Aren't you an Englishman? You mustn't shake the pious belief in which I was brought up, that you are all weaned with Scotch! Say when.
I shall take you into the Ab-i-Gerger to Sheleilieh and the English." Magin considered him, with a flicker in his lighted eyes. "You might perhaps have done it if you had not forgotten about your gasolene And you may yet. We shall see. But it seems to me, my enemy! that you make a miscalculation. Let us suppose that you take me to Sheleilieh.
By the way," he went on casually, "what is this?" He reached forward again toward Gaston's seat, where lay the Bakhtiari's present. Gaston dropped his tin and made a snatch at it. But Magin was too quick for him. He retreated to his place at the stern of the boat, where he drew the knife out of its sheath. "Sharp, too!" he commented, with a smile at Gaston. "And my revolver is gone!"
Magin said nothing for a moment. Then: "Courage, yes! One needs a little courage in this curious world." There was a pause, as the boat cut around a dark curve. "But do not think, my poor Gaston, that it is I who blame you. On the contrary, I find you very reasonable more reasonable than many ministers of state.
Then he remembered that voice of the drowsing city, bursting out with the pent-up brew of the day. "Ah!" exclaimed Magin strangely "The cannon speaks at last! You will hear, beside your fountain, what it has to say. That, at any rate, you will perhaps understand you and the people of your island." He stopped a moment.
I can only conclude that some one frightened him away. Where do you suppose he hurries to? And do you think he will arrive in time?" Ganz opened his mouth; but if he intended to say something, he decided instead to draw his hand across his spare jaw. However, he did speak after all. "I notice that you at least do not hurry, Majesty! Do you fiddle while Rome burns?" "Ha!" laughed Magin.
Matthews noticed, from the reverberation of the room, that his voice must have been unnecessarily loud. He busied himself with the bowl of his pipe. As for Magin, he got up and began walking to and fro, drawing at his cigar. The red of it showed how much darker the room had been growing. It increased, too, the curious effect of his eyes. They looked like two empty holes in a mask.
So?" exclaimed Magin elaborately. "I hear, by the way, that that famous railroad is not marching so fast. The Lurs don't like it. But sometimes even Englishmen," he added, "have reasons for doing what they do. This one, at any rate, seemed more inclined to ask questions than to answer them. I confess I don't know whether it was because he had nothing to say or whether he preferred not to say it.
"When I first met you in the river, Mr. Magin," he said, quietly, "I confess I did not realize how much of the spoils of Susa you were carrying away in your chests. And I didn't take your gold anklet as a bribe, though I didn't take you for too much of a gentleman in offering it to me.
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