“ ‘Not at all!’ said I modestly. ‘It is quite a small accident and of a sort to which I am accustomed; but do you ride back now that everything is well, for the slaves are uneducated men’ (this sort of flattery is honey to bailiffs), ‘and will need someone of your standing to moderate their pace and to check their horses and to see that the wagon comes on in good condition. Go very carefully, for the axle is weak. When you shall reach the town we will get a proper pin and have everything put right in an hour or two, meanwhile I will go forward and we will make an appointment at the market gardener’s, which you will reach, I think, some three-quarters of an hour after myself. For we are now, I take it, some couple of hours from the town.’
“ ‘You are right,’ said the bailiff, ‘you have but to follow the track and we will come after you.’ With that he turned back. Once I had seen him disappear behind the rise of the hill I dug my spurs sharply into my poor horse and went at top speed across the bled.
“I am a poor rider and had not my saddle been ample and my stirrups weighty I should have fallen. But Providence was with me once again. I came through a gap of rocks and saw, immediately before and below me, the white domes and flat roofs of a large city, and just outside the gate a fine plantation of young fruit trees, which I recognized as the nursery gardener’s.
“I had ridden past his house and grounds, and admired the young pear trees especially (a fine collection) when a useful thought occurred to me, and I acted on it at once, eager though I was to save time. I turned back and said to the slave at the gate of the plantation, ‘I have a message for your master. Tell him that if anyone asks for Daoud-ben-Yacoub, he has bidden me say that he went back by a shortcut to help his companions with a broken wagon.’ I then turned again and rode off towards the city walls.
“I approached the town and rode through the gate with dignity in the new fine clothes the young lord had given me. I nodded in a superior manner to the guard and made straight for the opposite entrance to the city. A horse fair was proceeding. I put up mine at an inn, took off the bag of gold (which was heavy, but not too heavy to be carried) walked towards the market and asked where I could best purchase a horse. The name of a horse-seller was given me. I approached him, failed to believe all that he told me with regard to the beast he offered, but said it would be enough for my purpose. I had not an idea whither to fly, yet fly I must, for sooner or later the bailiff or my late master himself must follow. I knew nothing of the country nor the names of its towns nor of the roads. I took refuge in a piece of diplomacy. As I paid for the horse, I said to the seller, that I had to reach my mother’s house in the next city before sundown, and that I hoped my purchase was able to carry me that far in the remaining half-day.
“ ‘Half a day’s riding?’ answered the merchant in astonishment. ‘I know not how you ride! If you mean the town of Taftah it is not more than three hours’ going for any reasonable mount.’
“ ‘Is that so?’ said I in surprise. ‘I am a stranger and I can only believe what I was told. But you know how vague these country people are. I was assured that this was the road to Taftah,’ and here I pointed through the eastern gate.
“ ‘Yes! That is the road,’ he said. ‘You can easily reach your mother’s house before evening upon this beast,’ he said, clapping its crupper. ‘Without doubt you will be there long before the prayer: and God be with you, Hassan!’ For, incidentally, it was as Hassan that I had done business with him.
“I paid him ten pieces of gold for the beast. (It was more than it was worth). I humbly repeated his prayer which I felt did apply with peculiar force to me now, for I was conscious that I was once more under the beneficent guidance of Heaven—who could not be with that heavy pouch now hanging again on his saddle? I rode out therefore confidently, quite careless whether I killed the beast or no in my rapid progress and brought it into Taftah well within three hours in such a state that I was delighted to find a purchaser (to whom I gave my name as Abdurram, and my profession as that of a leather dresser), who offered but five pieces of gold: I was glad to be rid of the horse and him at that.
“Time still pressed. I might be traced. I knew not what accidents had occurred upon the road behind me, whether indeed those poor fools had managed to mend the wagon again, if not, whether the bailiff would have the courage to tell his master or ride on to find me in the first town. If he had so ridden on he might find evidences of my departure, and even (more doubtfully) of my second horse
