“What! a cock? where is the comb? Who ever heard of a cock without a comb, eh? And that, what is that?”
Mustapha ventured to assert that it was a chicken.
“A chicken,” cried the Pasha fiercely; “more like a dromedary. You rascal! did you not say that you could draw? Go! deceiver, you are deposed. Have him out and set him to cleanse the hen-house, and woe betide you if it is not as clean as your own conscience before to-morrow morning—away!”
The Pasha shouted the last word, and then fell back in fits of laughter; while the terrified man fled to the hen-house, and drove its occupants frantic in his wild attempts to cleanse their Augean stable.
It was not until midnight that Sanda Pasha and Lancey, taking leave of Hamed and his guests, returned home.
“Come, follow me,” said the Pasha, on entering the palace.
He led Lancey to the room in which they had first met, and, seating himself on a divan, lighted his chibouk.
“Sit down,” he said, pointing to a cushion that lay near him on the marble floor.
Lancey, although unaccustomed to such a low seat, obeyed.
“Smoke,” said the Pasha, handing a cigarette to his guest.