particulars, "nothing whatever except this curious-looking bead hung
round his neck by a blackened thong of leather," and he handed me a thing
about as big as a filbert nut with a loop for suspension and apparently
of rock crystal, though so begrimed and dull its nature was difficult to
speak of with certainty. The bead was of no seeming value and slipped
unintentionally into my waistcoat pocket as I chatted for a few minutes
more with the doctor, and then, shaking hands, I said goodbye, and went
back to the cab which was still waiting outside.

It was only on reaching home I noticed the hospital porters had omitted to
take the dead man's carpet from the roof of the cab when they carried him
in, and as the cabman did not care about driving back to the hospital with
it, and it could not well be left in the street, I somewhat reluctantly
carried it indoors with me.

Once in the shine of my own lamp and a cigar in my mouth I had a closer
look at that ancient piece of art work from heaven, or the other place,
only knows what ancient loom.

A big, strong rug of faded Oriental colouring, it covered half the floor
of my sitting-room, the substance being of a material more like camel's
hair than anything else, and running across, when examined closely,
were some dark fibres so long and fine that surely they must have come
from the tail of Solomon's favourite black stallion itself. But the
strangest thing about that carpet was its pattern. It was threadbare
enough to all conscience in places, yet the design still lived in solemn,
age-wasted hues, and, as I dragged it to my stove-front and spread
it out, it seemed to me that it was as much like a star map done by a
scribe who had lately recovered from delirium tremens as anything else.
In the centre appeared a round such as might be taken for the sun, while