102
THE SURAKARTA
done correctly and in order, opened the box. If any wrong lever were tried before the eighteen were twisted, pushed or pulled, each correctly, the combination would not work and it was impossible to open the box.
Max Schimmel now, after listening attentively to this explanation by Baraka, bent over the closed box.
"What iss within?" he inquired.
"Nothing is within," Baraka replied. "The emerald only was within; and since that is gone there is nothing."
Max shook his head. The air of this, as of all the rooms occupied by the Javanese, was heavy with Oriental odors; but among them Max seemed to have detected something as he stooped and sniffed close to the box.
"Sandalwood iss within," Max declared.
