“ ‘I am not willing,’ said he, ‘I am not willing … but I will take the risk. The worst that can come to me I have already suffered. At the best’—and he pointed towards the vast flock of sheep now a mass of glimmering white as they lay in the darkness—‘at the best we should each acquire provision for many years.’
“ ‘Oh! fool!’ thought I, ‘provision for many years! Does he not know how money breeds?’ But in open speech I said, ‘Yes, we will divide the spoil and go our ways. I with my share and you with yours.’
“ ‘Precisely,’ he answered with a curious smile which, for the moment, intrigued me. ‘You with your share and I with mine.’
“As the night passed I entertained him with the details of my plan. Since it was I who had to do the work while he would have to command (from his knowledge of the trade), I proposed that he should be the master and I the man. To all this he nodded assent. He was also prepared to meet me in my suggestion that he should put on my fine clothes and I his rags, the better to carry out our parts. ‘This will,’ said I, ‘seem strange while you are driving the sheep, but as we approach the town and market to which you shall direct me, if there be one nearby, I will attempt to take over your task and under your direction I may at least complete it by bringing the flock to the place of sale. I will speak of you as the owner. My fine dress which you wear will carry out that deception and deceive all into thinking that it is an honest transaction. The sum upon which we shall agree with the purchaser shall be paid to you; and not until the whole transaction is over, and we well out of the gate, shall I ask for the division, which I take it should be in equal halves.’
“To all this also he agreed; only asking whether I would not like (as, after all, I had only just met him) to have the money paid to both?
“I urged him to keep to my plan. His receiving the money as master would seem natural and excite no surprise. We could divide in private at our leisure.
“To my surprise he made me a low bow at this; but I put it down to custom, and went on with my plan.
“For the sake of a rough calculation I asked him what sheep were fetching, and he said that in the neighbouring Ksar, which might be called a straggling market town or a large village, there was to be held, it so happened, the very next day a sheep market, where we must find ourselves shortly after sunrise. It was distant less than an hour across the uplands. The purchasers came from all parts, and as the bidding was likely to be brisk we might expect for the flock as a whole not less than 1,800 or even 2,000 pieces of gold. As he spoke I already felt that capital in my possession, or, at least, half of it, and I thought things would go hard with me if after our first successful transaction I could not carry on my partner to another and another, until at last I had manipulated him out of his share also.
“We discussed all further details through the night, rehearsed our parts, and had the whole perfect when the first glimmer of dawn showed in the East beyond the edges of the hills beneath a waning moon.
“We rose; the flock was gathered; our garments exchanged; and I could not but admire my companion, now that he was dressed in what seemed a manner so much more suitable to his carriage and features. He looked a very master, a prosperous lord of men, and I congratulated him upon the effect, which, I assured him would allay all suspicion, since all would take him for a very great lord indeed.
“Again he smiled that intriguing smile and bowed too low. But I was a little nettled at his affecting to play the part thoroughly by addressing me in sharp tones and with the air of a superior. I, for my part, shivered in the dawn in the miserable rags which I had taken from him, and holding his staff awkwardly enough tramped on in my character of the servant.
“Soon, just as the sun rose, the dusty hedges and the cracked yellowish walls of the Ksar appeared in a hollow through which ran a muddy stream. From the enclosures within, rose the bleating of many sheep which had been driven to the same market, and we observed upon the folds of land beyond several flocks arriving in convergence upon the same place.
“My companion told me while we were still out of earshot that an early arrival would allow us to watch the movement of prices and, what was of more value to us, might enable us to get away before opportunity for pursuit should arise.
“He gave me my last instructions, recalling all that we had arranged in the night. ‘I, for my part,’ said he, as the first sheep of our great flock entered the narrow streets, ‘shall fall behind you and take my way to the pavement outside the Mosque reserved for the principal merchants, and there with all due dignity and honour await your report, while you go forward to the market place beyond the Mosque: when you have got a purchaser, come back and find me. For such is here the custom. It is the servant who negotiates, the master who confirms. The servant leads the purchaser to his superior, and that superior takes the purchase money. Do you, for your part, cast around until you hear the conversation of the bidders and
