I’m harmless. Please let me out. Just for a little while. Do let me out. I’ll do anything. Please—”

Frank looked at the old man. “He’s there all right,” he said. “He’s there.”

“Of course he’s there,” said the old man. “I wouldn’t sell you an empty bottle. What do you take me for? In fact, I wouldn’t sell this one at all, for sentimental reasons, only I’ve had the shop a good many years now, and you’re my first customer.”

Frank put his ear to the bottle again. “Let me out. Let me out. Oh, please let me out. I’ll—”

“My God!” said Frank uneasily. “Does he go on like that all the time?”

“Very probably,” said the old man. “I can’t say I listen. I prefer the radio.”

“It seems rather tough on him,” said Frank sympathetically.

“Maybe, ”said the old man. “They don’t seem to like bottles. Personally, I do. They fascinate me. For example, I—”

“Tell me, ”said Frank. “Is he really harmless?”

“Oh, yes,” said the old man. “Bless you, yes. Some say they’re tricky—eastern blood and all that—I never found him so. I used to let him out; he’d do his stuff, then back he’d go again. I must say, he’s very efficient.”

“He could get me anything?”

“Absolutely anything.”

“And how much do you want for him?” said Frank.

“Oh I don’t know,” said the old man. “Ten million dollars, perhaps.”

“I say! I haven’t got that. Still, if he’s as good as you say, maybe I could work it off on the hire purchase system.”

“Don’t worry. We’ll say five dollars instead. I’ve got all I want, really. Shall I wrap him up for you ?”

Frank paid over his five dollars, and hurried home with the precious bottle, terrified of breaking it. As soon as he was in his room he pulled out the stopper. Out flowed a prodigious quantity of greasy smoke, which immediately solidified into the figure of a gross and fleshy Oriental, six feet six in height, with rolls of fat, a hook nose, a wicked white to his eye, vast double chins, altogether like a film-producer, only larger. Frank, striving desperately for something to say, ordered shashlik, kebabs, and Turkish delight.