His face lit up with a smile of hope, however, when he saw me, and his whole aspect changed. "My friend! my deliverer!" he cried, using all kinds of extravagant Oriental phrases to express his delight at seeing me. "Ah! at last you have come, and I shall be saved! May all the blessings of Allah be on your head!" The official withdrew, locking the door carefully behind him, having first given me to understand by various signs that he would return for me in about half-an-hour. "Well, now," I inquired, when we were alone, "what is this terrible trouble which has brought you here? What have you been doing?" "Nothing!" declared Shin Shira solemnly. "Nothing whatever to merit this punishment. It is all a horrible mistake. Let me begin at the beginning. About two months ago, after a series of my usual adventures, I suddenly appeared here in Baghdad. Now I have been acquainted with the city for many, many years--in fact, ever since the time of Sinbad the Sailor, whom I knew quite well, and with whom I was at one time very friendly. Well, I have many times appeared here since then, and on each occasion I have taken a great interest in the place on account of old associations. I have made many friends here, too; so when I found myself here once more I was greatly delighted, and was making my way to the Bazaar, where I knew I should be sure to find some acquaintances, when greatly to my surprise I saw several passers-by stop and stare at me curiously and then, whispering amongst themselves, follow me at some distance behind. [Illustration] "It could not be my clothing which was attracting all this attention, for it was more or less of the same pattern to which they were accustomed. I caught sight of myself in a polished steel mirror in one of the shops in the Bazaar, and stole a glance at myself, but could see nothing wrong. What could be the cause? I had not long to wait, however, before I found out to my cost what was wrong. "The crowd following me had increased in size, and at last two enormous men in uniform came up and seized me by my arms, and I was immediately surrounded by a throng of curious faces. "'Where did you get that diamond?' demanded one of my captors, pointing to my turban, in which, as you know, I always wear the jewel which the Princess gave me. "'Oh that! That was given to me many years ago by a friend--a Princess--who has been dead now for many hundreds of years,' I said. "'Many hundreds of years? And you say she was a friend of yours?' exclaimed the man. 'Absurd!' "'Preposterous!' declared the other. 'Look here! If you can't give us some more reasonable explanation than that, we shall take you off at once to the Chief Magistrate, and charge you with having stolen it.' "'But why?' I gasped. 'Why should you think that I have stolen it?' "'A diamond of exactly that size and colour has disappeared from amongst the Crown jewels, and it strikes me very forcibly that this is the very one.'