Saidee—the Veiled Fortune Teller.
“What will he do with it?” mutters the irrepressible Wycherley in Aleck’s ears, but the intended joke is Greek to the Canadian, who, while half an American at heart, has never been educated up to the standard of American humor.
“He reads it—see that start, that eager glance around. Well done, Samson, old boy. I’ll have you playing first walking gent in my traveling combination before you’re many moons older. Now his gaze is fastened on the door. He advances like a lamb to the slaughter, and hands in his little quarter. Shout, ye Turkish hosts, for the game is apparently won!”
CHAPTER XXVIII.
DOROTHY.
The ex-actor has reported matters in pretty much the way they occur. Samson plays his part in a manner that need never shame him, and perhaps secretly enjoys the situation. To a man engaged in his business, where he daily matches his wit and shrewdness against the diplomacy of others, the constant friction must of necessity polish these qualities. There is no danger of rust with a wide-awake operator on 'Change. This, then, really comes in line with his daily business, only now he deals with a tricky Turk instead of howling brokers, and the stake is not a fortune—it may be his life.
It is characteristic of the man that he insists upon managing his own game and beating his old-time enemy in person. Most men, under similar conditions, would gladly turn the whole business over to the police, and put the Turk from the Golden Horn through a course of American law and justice that would prevent his reappearance in his old haunts until the holding of the next World’s Fair in Russia.
Not so Samson Cereal.
He has depended upon himself so many years, to reward his friends and punish his enemies, that it never occurs to him to shirk the responsibility.
Hence, in accordance with his well-arranged plans he walks over to the narrow doorway at exactly ten minutes of nine and enters. The camels have been withdrawn from the scene, and make ready to fill their places in the delayed bridal procession which will soon take possession of the narrow street. Now the donkey boys have full swing, and how they do belabor the tough little beasts. Really it is astonishing that the officers of the S. P. C. A. do not interfere, unless it has been previously proven to their satisfaction that from the days of Balaam and his talking ass, the stubborn little animals are insensible to pain. Besides, this beating is all done with so much good nature, one can hardly find an excuse for interfering.