"Vera well; eet s"all be. Get redee."
"In the meantime, boys," said Coddington, "I will be on the watch for the guest who is on the outlook for a harem."
Some time later Colonel Stringer and Professor Gunn rapped at the door of the house.
They were not admitted by Coddington himself, but by a black man in flowing garments, who bowed obsequiously before the colonel and bade them follow him.
They were ushered into a large, luxuriously furnished room, with many divans and Turkish rugs, a fountain playing in the centre of the apartment, and a man in Eastern garments propped up amid some cushions, lazily smoking a hookah.
"My deah Coddington," said Stringer, hastening toward the smoker and bowing low, "delighted! Permit me to present my friend, Professor Gunn, of America."
The professor bowed after the fashion of Stringer.
"Deuced glad to know you, don"t you know," drawled Coddington. "Is this the gentleman, colonel, who is looking for a harem?"
"The same, suh," nodded Stringer.
"Well, by Jove! I believe I"ve got the very thing he wants. I have the finest harem in the East, you know. Fourteen wives, in all, and every one a pearl. Ya-as."
"But why do you wish to sell out, sir?" questioned Gunn.
"It"s become a deuced bore, don"t you understand. Besides that, I must return to England soon, and I can"t take my beauties with me. It would be quite scandalous there. I"d find myself arrested, don"t you know. So I have to dispose of my dear little doves. It breaks my heart, but I can"t do anything different. If you want a harem, professor, that outrivals anything in the East, you"ll get it right here, and get it for a song, too."
Now, it is best to confess the actual truth right here. Professor Gunn had no intention of buying a harem. What the old boy wanted was to get inside a harem-to see it and get a peep at the "Eastern houris," as he had heard them called. And he took this method of getting in.
The professor was congratulating himself on his cleverness.
"Eh, eh, ahem!" coughed the old pedagogue. "I"ve always been somewhat shy of bargains that can be obtained for a mere song. I always favor inspecting whatever I purchase."
"Then be seated," invited Coddington, motioning toward the heaped-up cushions at his side. "Sit here, professor, and you shall see some of the sights of the harem."
The professor hastened to deposit himself amid the cushions, chuckling inwardly over his success.
Colonel Stringer accepted a seat on the opposite side of the professed owner of the harem.
Coddington clapped his hands.
Immediately a huge black man, dressed in gaudy, barbaric clothes, his head turbaned, his feet bare, appeared from somewhere and bowed low before the Englishman.
"Bring hookahs for my visitors," said Coddington, "and bid my dancing girls appear and dance for me."
The black man bowed sweepingly again, and hastily disappeared.
Almost immediately two boys, clothed in purple, entered, bearing hookahs, which they placed before the professor and the colonel. When the visitors were ready to smoke, the boys lighted the hookahs.
"He! he!" laughed Zenas, as he puffed away. "Makes one feel decidedly kinky and chipper. I"m not much of a smoker, but I-ough! ugah! ugah!
agoo-ugah!-hah! Whew!"
He had taken some of the smoke into his lungs, and it nearly strangled him. He continued to cough for some time, but suddenly stopped and rubbed the water from his eyes.
Out upon the tiled floor before them glided a number of graceful figures, girls in diaphanous draperies, which fluttered in the air, light as azure. These girls were swaying, bending, dancing, their arms waving in the air, their feet moving swiftly to the sound of tiny, tinkling bells and the throb of a strange, unnatural music. The music was produced by a number of musicians who mysteriously appeared, seated on the floor at one side.
The faces of the girls were hidden by veils, which were bound down lightly, to keep them from fluttering aside with their swaying movements and exposing their features.
Zenas gazed and gasped.
"Great Caesar!" he muttered. "This being the proprietor of a harem is great!"
The girls continued their dance, and to the old pedagogue every movement was full of poetry. They advanced, retreated, pirouetted, their arms waving from side to side above their heads, their heads swaying, their garments fluttering, their veils hiding their features, yet seeming to show glimpses of dark, flashing eyes beyond.
The professor forgot to smoke; he forgot to breathe; he forgot to do anything but stare.
How long the dance continued, he was unable to say, but finally Coddington clapped his hands, and away glided the girls, as graceful as phantoms, and like phantoms they vanished.
The musicians vanished in the same silent manner.
A great sigh of regret came from Gunn.
"Well, professor," said Coddington, "how did that hit you?"
"Great!" was the enthusiastic answer. "How often do they perform?"
"Whenever I bid them. I keep them to amuse me."
"Shade of Absalom! If I owned this harem, I"d tire them out dancing.
What"s next on the program?"
"I will call in some of my wives."
"Were there any in that bevy?"
"Oh, no; those are nothing but dancing girls. The ladies of the harem are more select and beautiful."
"Call them! You can"t hurry them too much to suit me."
"But there are certain rules to which I must conform, else I forfeit my rights. You know, the ladies of the harem never enter this room when more than one man is present. If I call them, it will be necessary for the colonel and myself to retire."
"And leave me alone with them?" gasped Zenas.
"Yes. I will send you my two favorites, the greatest beauties of the harem. I have taught them both to speak English, although they do so somewhat imperfectly, and they have picked up several expressions of which I do not approve. No matter what they say, you must understand that they are complimenting you."
"All right," said the professor, a bit doubtfully. "But are there only two?"
"Only two? How many do you want? There are plenty of them, but you understand that the two I shall send are the reigning belles of the harem. They are marvelously beautiful."
"Well, I-I don"t know about being left alone," muttered the old fellow nervously. "Can"t it be arranged some other way?"
"Why, I thought you might wish to be alone with them. As I have said, the colonel and I must leave the room, as no man save yourself may be present; but I can send in the dancing girls again and let them dance while you are chatting with my favorites."