"I should certainly advise you to purchase it," whispered Shin Shira.
"It is a very valuable rug, and no doubt you would find it very useful
in many ways."
I must confess to a considerable amount of curiosity myself as we
entered the shop and asked to be shown the carpet which Shin Shira
declared to be endued with such remarkable properties.
It was a very handsome one, and the shopkeeper showed it to us with a
considerable amount of pride.
"It's a genuine article, sir," he told me. "Came over only last week
from Arabia in a special parcel purchased by our agent in Baghdad--I
believe it's very old. These foreigners know how to make things which
will last."
I inquired the price, and hesitated considerably when I found that it
was far in excess of the amount I had intended to pay for a rug.
However, Lionel seemed so very eager, and Shin Shira assured me so
positively that it was really a bargain, that, with a sigh at what I
feared was a great piece of extravagance on my part, I took out my purse
and paid for it. "To where shall I send it?" inquired the shopkeeper.
"Let's ride home on it and save the cab fare," whispered Shin Shira,
pulling me down to his level by my sleeve.
"Good gracious!" I exclaimed.
"Why not? It will be the quickest way home, and certainly the least
expensive," persuaded the little Yellow Dwarf.
"But--but--" I protested.
Shin Shira had already spread the carpet on the ground, and pulling
Lionel on to it, beckoned me to follow.
Half mechanically I obeyed his instructions, and had no sooner sat down
on it, cross-legged, as I saw that Shin Shira and Lionel were doing,
than the little Yellow Dwarf cried out something in a language which I
supposed to be Arabic--and immediately we began to rise into the air.
[Illustration: "We floated away over the roofs of the houses."]
I shall never forget the expression of dismay on the countenance of the
shopkeeper and his assistants, when they saw us slowly floating in the
air towards the door.
"Open it! open it, somebody!" shouted Shin Shira, and a
bewildered-looking customer who had just entered instinctively pulled
the handle. Before we knew where we were, we found ourselves out in the
open air with a shouting, gesticulating, excited crowd watching us as we
rose higher and higher, and floated away over the roofs of the houses.
The sensation, I must admit, was a pleasant one, and, despite a slight
feeling of nervousness (which, however, young Sutcliffe did not appear
to share), I quite enjoyed the journey to my flat.
There were, fortunately, but very few people about, and we arrived at
the door without attracting much attention.
One nervous old lady, at whose feet we descended somewhat suddenly, did
threaten to call the police--saying rather angrily that "What with
motor-cars and such-like," she "didn't know what we were a-coming to,
and it wasn't safe for a respectable lady to walk about the streets,
what with one thing and another."
I managed, however, to soothe her ruffled feelings, and, rolling the rug
up carefully, we went up to the flat. I threw myself into a chair in the
study, thoroughly tired out and not a little bewildered by the strange
events of the morning.
Lionel, however, was full of excitement, and eager to be off again for a
ride on the marvellous Magic Carpet.
"I say! you know! but it's the rippingest thing I've ever heard of. Why,
we'll be able to go anywhere. Just think what an awful lot we'll save in
railway fares and cabs and those sort of things. I suppose anybody can
use it?" he inquired, turning to Shin Shira.
"Oh yes, of course," declared the little Yellow Dwarf, "so long as you
say, out loud, where you want to go to."
"Oh! Do let's go out again--just for a little while," pleaded Lionel.
"Can't we go to Gammage's? He lives over at Wimbledon. It's quite easy
to get to, and it won't take long. We could be back to lunch, and I
should _so_ like him to see the Magic Carpet. Do come, sir."
"No," I replied, shaking my head, "I'm too tired. You two can go if you
like, only be back in an hour and a half."
"Oh, jolly!" cried Lionel. "Come on, please--let's start at once."
And he picked up the carpet under his arm.
"I think it would attract less attention if, instead of starting from
the pavement, we went out of the window," said Shin Shira. "What do you
say?"
"By all means," I replied, "if you think best," for you see, having
ridden on it myself, I felt perfectly safe in trusting my young cousin
on the Magic Carpet, and I felt sure that Shin Shira would not let him
come to any harm.
So we opened the window, and a minute later the two were gaily floating
away out of sight, both energetically waving their pocket-handkerchiefs
until they disappeared.
I could tell by the noise in the street that their strange method of
conveyance was attracting considerable attention; but as I felt thankful
to note, no one seemed to connect their appearance with my rooms.
The next hour or so passed quickly enough, and I did not begin to get in
the least anxious till I heard the clock strike two, and then I suddenly
realised that they were over half-an-hour late.
"Oh, they're all right," I consoled myself with thinking. "I expect
Gammage is so interested in the wonderful carpet that they can't get
away."
When three hours had passed, however, and there was no sign of their
return, I began to get seriously alarmed.
"What can have happened?" I thought, and, to add to my discomfiture, a
telegram arrived from Lionel's parents inquiring if he had arrived in
London safely from Marlborough.
I was able to reply, truthfully, that he _had_ arrived safely, but, as
hour after hour passed by without any trace of either Shin Shira or the
boy, I became more and more disturbed.
At last I could stand it no longer, but putting on my hat, I hurried off
to the nearest Police Station.
"H'm! What do you say, sir?" said the Police Inspector whom I found
there, seated before a large open book, when in a broken voice I had
hurriedly explained that I feared that my young cousin was lost. "Went
off in company with a foreign-looking gent--Just describe him to me,
please, as near as you can."
I described Shin Shira's appearance as accurately as I could, and the
Police Inspector looked up hurriedly and gave me a searching glance.
"Do you mean to say the gent was going about the streets dressed like
_that_?" he asked, when I had told him about Shin Shira's yellow costume
and turban.
"Yes," I replied in some confusion, "he is a foreigner, you know, and--"
"Where does he come from?"
"From Japan, I think, or China, or--"
"What's his name?"
"Shin Shira Scaramanga Manousa Yama Hama is his full name, but--"
The Police Inspector laid down his pen and stared again at me.
"It's a curious name," said he; "I'll get you to write it down for me. I
don't think I should be surprised at _anything_ happening to _anyone_
with a name like that. Where do you say they were going?"
"Well," I explained, "they set out to go to Wimbledon to see a--"
"Wimbledon? Let's see, from Kensington they'd go by train I suppose,
from High Street Station, and change at--"
"No, no," I interrupted, "they didn't go by train at all, they--" and
here I paused, for I suddenly reflected how exceedingly unlikely the
Inspector would be to believe me if I told him exactly _how_ they set
out for Wimbledon. "You see," I began by way of explanation, "I bought
a rug this morning that--"
"Excuse me, sir," said the Inspector somewhat impatiently, "would you
mind keeping to the subject. How did Mr. Shin--er--the foreigner I mean,
and your cousin go to Wimbledon? If they didn't go by train, did they
drive or go by motor, or what?"
"Well, I was trying to tell you. You see, I bought a rug this morning,
that--"
"I _don't_ want to hear about your rug, sir," said the Inspector quite
angrily. "If you wish us to try and find the young gentleman you must
answer my questions properly. How did he set out to go to Wimbledon?
Come, come! Let's begin at the beginning. Which way did they turn when
they left your door?"
"You see, they didn't exactly leave by the door," I began.
"How did they go then, out of the window?" asked the Inspector in a
somewhat sarcastic voice.
"Yes," I replied, "that's just how they did go."
The Inspector looked bewildered.
"Look here, sir," he said at last, "you told me when you gave me your
name and address that you lived in a flat at Kensington on the second
floor, and now you tell me that your cousin and a foreign gentleman
with an outlandish name and dressed like a Guy Fawkes, left your house
by the window. Really!"
"So they _did_," I explained; "you see, I bought a rug this morning
that--"
"_Bother_ the rug, sir!" shouted the Inspector, angrily throwing down
his pen.
"If you _won't_ listen to what I have to say," I said with some amount
of dignity, "how can I possibly tell you what I know? I am
_endeavouring_ to explain that my cousin and the gentleman left in a
very remarkable manner by means of a Magic Carpet, which--"
"Excuse me, sir," said the Inspector, getting up from his seat and
showing me the door, "it strikes me that it's a lunatic asylum you want
and not a Police Station. I haven't any time to waste with people who
come here with stories like that. Good-evening!" And he shut the door,
leaving me outside on the step.
I went to several other stations, and finally to Scotland Yard, but I
could get no one to believe my extraordinary story; and at last I went
to bed quite bewildered and in a terribly anxious frame of mind, leaving
the lights burning and the windows wide open in case the wanderers
returned during the night.
The next day, not hearing any news, I was obliged to telegraph for
Lionel's father and mother; and I had a terrible scene with them, for
they reproached me over and over again for letting their son venture out
upon the Magic Carpet.
"You must have known," said my aunt tearfully, "that it was dangerous to
trust to such heathenish and out-of-date methods of travelling, and now
the poor dear boy is probably transformed or bewitched, or done
something terrible to by this wretched Yellow Dwarf friend of yours,
with the awful name. It's really disgraceful of you to have let him go
at all!"
And so, amid the most bitter reproaches, although I left no stone
unturned in my hopeless search for Lionel and Shin Shira, several days
flew by, till one morning I nearly leaped from my chair in surprise and
delight, at seeing the following report in the paper--
"EXTRAORDINARY RESCUE AT SEA
"By Marconigram comes a message from mid-ocean that two days ago
the S.S. _Ruby_, from Liverpool to New York, picked up at sea,
under extraordinary circumstances, an English school-boy who
states that he was travelling by means of a Magic Carpet, which he
was unable to manage. He was found to be in a state of complete
exhaustion, but has since recovered, and appears to be a lively,
intelligent lad. He will be landed at New York."
It is needless to say that my uncle and myself lost no time in putting
ourselves in communication with the steamship people, and of course
found that the rescued lad was no other than Lionel.
His father and I crossed over by the next boat, and found him happy and
well and being made a tremendous fuss of by everybody at the hotel where
we had arranged for him to stay till our arrival.
"Of course," he explained in telling us all about it, "everything went
all right at first, and we went to Gammage's house in no time, but he
was out. We landed in the garden, and nobody saw us, and I went up to
the front door and knocked, and when I found Gammage wasn't at home I
just went back to Shin Shira and asked where else we could go, because I
didn't want to go home so soon.
"'How would you like to go over to France?' he said; 'we could do it in
about twenty minutes.'
"So of course I said yes, and we were crossing the Channel all right
when he suddenly began to disappear.
"You can guess I was in an awful funk when I found myself alone on the
beastly old carpet, and I couldn't manage it at all. I suppose it was
because I couldn't speak the language; Shin Shira used Arabic or
something, wasn't it? I tried all sorts of things too, a little bit of
French--you know, 'Avez-vous la plume de ma soeur?' and 'Donnez-moi du
pain,' and things like that out of my French exercises, but it didn't
do any good: we only went out to sea.
[Illustration]
"It was frightfully cold all night, and I couldn't sleep at all, and I
began to get awfully hungry; but the next morning about eleven o'clock I
began to descend very slowly and gradually down to the sea. I thought I
was going to be drowned, but fortunately just before I touched the water
they saw me from the _Ruby_, and sent a boat out to pick me up.
Everybody was awfully decent on board, and I had plenty of grub and
changed my clothes. A fellow who was going over with his people lent me
his while mine were being dried.
"Then when I got to New York your cable message was there waiting for
me, so I knew it was all right."
We were very thankful to have found the boy again, and within three
weeks we were happily home once more, and the adventure with the Magic
Carpet was a thing of the past.
The carpet itself was left floating out at sea, and from that day to
this I have not heard of it again.