Explore "What Befell Mr. Middleton because of the Third Gift of the Emir" by Wardon Allan Curtis on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Putting the scarabaeus in his left trousers pocket, Mr. Middleton / departed, and as he went about his affairs during the next several / days, he ceased to think of the talisman, but on the fourth day his / attention was recalled to it in a way that indeed seemed to prove that / it was a charm possessed of the powers the emir of the tribe of Al-Yam / had attributed to it. He was faring northward in a street car at / eleven of the morning, diverting himself with the study of the / passengers sitting opposite, when he became aware that the scarabaeus / in his left trousers pocket was slowly traveling up his leg. Had the / talisman been other than the heavy object it was, he would not have / noticed it, but it was of too considerable weight to travel over his / person without making its progress felt. Deterred by none of the / superstitious tremors which the unaccountable peregrinations of the / gold beetle would have excited in one less intrepid, he quickly thrust / his hand into his pocket to close it over another hand already there, / a hand which beyond a first little start to escape, lay passive and / unresisting, a hand soft and delicate, yet well-muscled withal, / long-fingered and finely formed. At the same time, a well-modulated / voice at his side exclaimed:
"Why, I did not recognize you at first. I was not looking when you / came and you evidently did not notice me."