Now, something very odd has happened which I wish to tell you about.
My father, as you know, was missionary in the Vilayet of Trebizond
many years ago. While there he came into possession of a curious sea
chest belonging to a German named Conrad Wilner, who was killed in a
riot near Gallipoli.
In this chest were, and still are, two very interesting things--an old
bronze Chinese figure which I used to play with when I was a child. It
was called the Yellow Devil; and a native Chinese missionary once read
for us the inscription on the figure which identified it as a Mongol
demon called Erlik, the Prince of Darkness.
The other object of interest in the box was the manuscript diary kept
by this Herr Wilner to within a few moments of his death. This I have
often heard read aloud by my father, but I forget much of it now, and
I never understood it all, because I was too young. Now, here is the
curious thing about it all. The first time you spoke to me of the
Princess Naïa Mistchenka, I had a hazy idea that her name seemed
familiar to me. And ever since I have known her, now and then I found
myself trying to recollect where I had heard that name, even before I
heard it from you.
Suddenly, one evening about a week ago, it came to me that I had heard
both the names, Naïa and Mistchenka, when I was a child. Also the name
Erlik. The two former names occur in Herr Wilner's diary; the latter
I heard from the Chinese missionary years ago; and that is why they
seemed so familiar to me.
It is so long since I have read the diary that I can't remember the
story in which the names Naïa and Mistchenka are concerned. As I
recollect, it was a tragic story that used to thrill me.
At any rate, I didn't speak of this to Princess Naïa; but about a week
ago there were a few people dining here with us--among others an old
Turkish Admiral, Murad Pasha, who took me out. And as soon as I heard
his name I thought of that diary; and I am sure it was mentioned in
it.
Anyway, he happened to speak of Trebizond; and, naturally, I said that
my father had been a missionary there many years ago.
As this seemed to interest him, and because he questioned me, I told
him my father's name and all that I knew in regard to his career as a
missionary in the Trebizond district. And, somehow--I don't exactly
recollect how it came about--I spoke of Herr Wilner, and his death at
Gallipoli, and how his effects came into my father's possession.