This we eventually did, and my ballooning friends accepted my invitation to take dinner at the hotel with me, so that after my adventure of the day I had a very pleasant evening. It was not till the next morning that I discovered that Aladdin's Lamp had vanished—had, in fact, probably been stolen.
There was nothing left to do now but to set out for England, which I eventually reached; and on arriving in London, and having the stones which I had brought back in my pockets valued, I found that there were many worthless ones among them, and that the few good ones, when sold, only realised sufficient to pay the rather heavy expenses of my journey to and from Baghdad, with a very little over for myself to repay me for the loss of my time.
MYSTERY NO. VIII
SHIN SHIRA AND THE MAD BULL
The Verrinder children were in a state of great excitement and glee, for we were going to spend the day at Burnham Beeches.
The plan was to drive over in a wagonette and have a picnic under the trees in the middle of the day.
Lionel was amongst the party, and Lady Betty, a young friend of the Verrinders, so that we were a merry crowd as we scrambled into the wagonette.
"It doesn't matter about your being old," said Fidge, snuggling up to me and catching hold of my arm; "you're not like most grown-ups, and don't mind us larking about a bit."