Platzoff rarely indulged in the luxury of drashkil-smoking oftener than
once a week. His constitution was delicate, and a too frequent use of so
dangerous a drug would have tended to shatter still further his already
enfeebled health. Besides, as he said, he wished to keep it as a luxury,
and not, by a too frequent indulgence in it, to take off the fine edge
of enjoyment and render it commonplace. Ducie had several subsequent
opportunities of witnessing the process of drashkil-smoking and its
effects, but one description will serve for all. On every occasion the
same formula was gone through, precisely as first seen by Ducie. The
pipe was charged and lighted by Cleon (after he became ill, by the new
servant Jasmin). Precisely at midnight Cleon returned, and either
conducted or carried his master to bed, as the necessities of the case
might require. It was his knowledge of the latter fact that stood Ducie
in such good stead later on, when he came to elaborate the details of
his scheme for stealing the Great Hara Diamond.
But as yet his scheme was in embryo. His visit was drawing to a close,
and he was still without the slightest clue to the hiding-place of the
Diamond.
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