The stranger raised fingers to lips and breast in a graceful salaam, and replied in the Gypsy patois, a cadenced, musical speech when used by those to whom it was a mother-tongue. Nikka grasped his hand, and exchanged a rapid-fire of question and answer, then called to me:
"This is my uncle. He arrived sooner than he expected. He guessed my need was great, and traveled without respite. Come and meet him."
Wasso Mikali rendered me a salaam and a handshake. His bright eyes surveyed my face, and he made a comment which drew a laugh from Nikka.
"My uncle thinks you have the look of one who likes to know how many cartridges his enemy carries," Nikka translated.
The old Gypsy sank to his haunches on the bare floor, with a sweeping gesture of invitation to both of us to join him.
"No, no," exclaimed Nikka as I started for a chair. "He has never sat on a chair in his life. Do as he does or he will think you are trying to demonstrate how different you are."
So I crouched cross-legged beside them—it seemed to be easy enough for Nikka to resume the ways of his boyhood—and concealed my discomfort as stoically as I could. It was close to midnight when we were awakened, and the talk with Wasso Mikali lasted for several hours. First, Nikka explained to him the circumstances of our trip to Constantinople, and the old man's eyes glistened at the mention of the treasure. He interrupted with a liquid flow of polysyllables.
"He says," Nikka interpreted, when he had finished, "that he has heard about it. It is just as I told you and Hugh, the tradition is known all through the Balkans. He says that the treasure is concealed in an ancient palace in Stamboul which has been inhabited longer than men can remember by a tribe of Gypsies whose chief is one Beran Tokalji. He says that this Tokalji is a great thief—" Nikka grinned ruefully—"that comes well from my uncle, Jack, and that there is a rumor amongst the tribes that he, Tokalji, is an ally of a group of Frank thieves. There is a tradition in Tokalji's tribe that their forefathers believed the treasure ultimately would go to them."
"Will he help us?" I asked eagerly.
Nikka gave me an odd look.