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A DENTIST FOR THE CONSUL 367
and indifference to the rain, as one conscious ot* importance,
conscious also of" being watched. He wore
a red fez and long black buttoned-up coat, into the
pockets of which his hands were thrust ; on his feet
were heavy shoes that could be slipped off and on
like clogs. He climbed the steps, and as he drew
near scrutinised me narrowly, and asked if I was
the English Consul.
His manner was deliberate and consequential when
I said I w^as not, and asked what he wanted. He
replied that he had come to draw a tooth for the
Consul, and with professional pride swung one hand
out of his pocket and displayed an instrument that I
eyed with respect, though scarcely able to refrain
from laughter. It was a pair of dental forceps, a foot
long, heavy, rusty, dirty ; with a similar instrument
I had once seen a native horse-doctor wrench a tooth
out of a horse's jaw. I had heard of no proposal to
call a dentist ; indeed my friend was lustily singing
" Widdicombe Fair" at this moment, and making the
khan re-echo with the doings of "Old Uncle Tom
Cobley and all " ; and I told the dentist he had made
a mistake. But he was certain he had been sent for
to draw the Consul's tooth ; and to come through the
rain on such a rare mission and then find himself the
victim of a mistake was more disappointment than he
could express.
And then I remembered that Ibrahim had complained
of toothache, though making light of any
such small thing, as became a kavass. He was called,
and at the sight of his swollen face the dentist's eyes
gleamed, though there was still regret that the Consul
was not the sufferer. A group of interested spectators
soon gathered to watch the operation now to take
place. Ibrahim w^as placed on a low stool on the
balcony ; the dentist spent some time in making sure of
the right tooth ; this matter satisfactorily settled, he
struck an attitude, holding himself a little way from
the patient. Suddenly he flourished his instrument,
executed a sort of rush upon Ibrahim's mouth, and
before I thought he had got a hold flung the tooth on