We went together through the shady markets, crossing here and there an open space of blinding sunlight, asking our way at intervals, until at last we entered a large whitewashed room where soldiers loitered and a frock-coated, be-fezzed official sat writing at a desk. This personage was very sympathetic. 'Twelve pounds!' he cried. 'It is a serious sum. The first thing to be done is to survey the scene of crime. Wait, I will send with you a knowing man.' He called one of the soldiers, who stepped forward and saluted, and gave him charge of the affair. 'You can place confidence in him. He knows his business,' he assured me, bowing with extreme politeness, as we took our leave. With the soldier who had been assigned to us we sauntered back to the hotel. The man abounded in compassion for me. He said it was the worst case he had ever heard of--to rob a man so manifestly good and amiable of so great a sum. Alas! the badness of some people. It put out the sun! At the hotel he spent a long while in my room, searching, as he said, for 'traces.' Rashid, the host and all his family, and nearly all the servants, thronged the doorway. After looking into every drawer, and crawling underneath the bed, which he unmade completely, he spent some minutes in debating whether the thief had entered by the window or the door. Having at last decided for the door, he turned to me and asked if there was anybody I suspected. When I answered 'no,' I saw him throw a side-glance at Rashid, as if he thought him fortunate in having so obtuse a master. As he was departing, Rashid, at my command, gave him a silver coin, for which he kissed my hand and, having done so, said: 'I know a clever man, none like him for such business. I will send him to your presence in an hour.' Three hours passed. I had finished luncheon, and was sipping coffee in the lounge, when a sleek personage in gorgeous robes was brought to me. He had a trick of looking down his nose at his moustache, the while he stroked it, with a gentle smirk. 'Your Excellency has been robbed,' he murmured in a secret tone, 'and you would know the robber? There is nothing simpler. I have discovered many thieves. I think it likely that I know the very man. I will disguise myself as an old woman or a begging dervish. There are many ways. But, first, your Honour must bestow on me an English pound. That is my fee. It is but little for such services.' I answered languidly that the affair had ceased to thrill me; I wished to hear no more about the money or the thief. He stayed a long while, wheedling and remonstrating, depicting his own subtlety in glowing terms; but in the end departed with despairing shrugs and backward glances, hoping that I might relent. Rashid, who had been out to tend the horses, came presently and asked if I had seen the great detective. When I described our interview, he nearly wept.