“I amused myself at my leisure, also, when I was in no haste, with occasional experiments in engineering such as suit the more educated man among his fellows. Thus I would let the water out from a dam as I passed it and then, at a considerable price, repair the ravages the escaping water might have made in the valley below. And I was even agreeable to retrace my steps and repair the damage which the flood had inevitably occasioned to the barrier itself: charging a suitable sum for both operations.
“Sometimes—when the occasion offered—I did business on a somewhat larger scale. I remember purchasing a whole train of wheat which was on its way to one of the larger hamlets, and when I arrived there keeping the people in some suspense (but not to the point of actual famine) until their necessity very naturally produced an excellent price for the grain. I also negotiated ransoms from time to time upon commission when I found myself in a district of brigands—simple folk—and I picked up some very curious carvings and pieces of metal work at a price satisfying to their rude owners yet promising an enormous profit when I should reach the plains.
“But all these were mere jests and pastimes, the occupation of enforced idleness as my long journey through the hills continued. At last I came to a place which had been described to me by a trusty servant, where, from the height of a pass I saw some thousands of feet below me the foothills descending rapidly on to an even plain which stretched, brown and sunburned, to the horizon. Not far from the base of the mountains, at the edge of this plain, a noble river wandered in many branches, separated by sandbanks; for I had been seven weeks in the hills and it was now the height of summer, the snows had long since melted away on the heights, and the stream was low.
“I pitched my last camp a mile or two from the hither bank of this great river, and sent forward certain of my servants to discover how best it might be crossed. They returned the next morning and told me that in several of its branches it was too deep to be forded, but at the place where the shores seemed to approach each other (where there was no interrupting islands, but one continuous sea of water four furlongs wide), a ferry had been established from a road-end and plied regularly for the passage of merchants, pilgrims and other travellers who there went over from the hills to the Kingdom of the Plain upon the further bank. I sent them back with an appointment for the ferry to be prepared to take my numerous caravan from the first hour after sunrise on the morrow. We packed all our gear, struck camp in the first dusk of dawn and duly reached the ferry head where a large flat boat manned with a dozen rowers captained by the old ferryman of the place waited us on a sort of wharf.
“The passage was tedious, and would take the whole day; for the stream was swift and no more than one camel could cross at a time.
“I was in some little hesitation how to act. If I remained upon the hither bank until all had passed over I could not be certain that my servants who had gone ahead would not play me a trick. If I crossed first I could not overlook the doings of my servants who had yet to cross; and though I had no reason to doubt their perfect honesty, neither had I any reason to doubt their vile thievish character. At last I made the following plan: I discharged all the camels of their packs, putting the packs on board in one heap, being very careful to put on board all the food as well as the coin. With this and one camel which I attended myself and hobbled, I crossed alone. I then went back again with the ferryman and his crew, still keeping my provisions and my coin, and brought over another camel and his driver, and so on until the whole of my company was transferred. Not till all the camels and their drivers were assembled, clamouring with hunger, upon the further bank, did I allow the coin and food to be landed under my very eye.
“The time which all this took made my retinue ravenously hungry, as I have said, and as the day wore on I was indeed touched by the earnest prayers they made for a little food, but I was too wise to yield, and it was not until the whole of my company was gathered together on the further bank, and I with it, that I permitted the cases to be landed and gave them all a hearty meal.
“It was by that time near sunset. We pitched our camp and waited till the morning to find a more regular habitation, for I had noticed a very little way off from the further bank, and somewhat upstream, not a few scattered houses standing in gardens and shaded in a grove of trees.
“I had as yet no plan how I might use the sums of which I was possessed. I was rather waiting for a venture to come to me than going out myself to seek it, when a chance word from the old ferryman, as I paid him the fares (which I had already contracted for at a great reduction, seeing how numerous we were), started me upon a train of thought.
“And here, my nephews, I will beg you to observe that any hint of opportunity must be seized at
