“The shepherd told me that he only went to that city from time to time, but he was well acquainted with it; the purchaser could be none other than Abd-ul-Eblis.
“The moment he pronounced this name I clapped my hands together and said: ‘Abd-ul-Eblis! That was the name!’ I thanked the shepherd for thus refreshing my memory, and I carefully walked by the beast’s side as should a mere servant by his master’s precious possession. I avoided the main gate (which I had now passed twice and where I might be too well known) and entered the city by a little postern. I found from inquiry of a blind man—which was the more prudent—the way to Abd-ul-Eblis’s stables.
“I made no plan of what I should do, for on those days when I am specially favoured by the Most High I leave His Power to guide me … and to guide also those with whom I do business. I went no farther than to tell the groom that I had come to find a purchaser for the horse—not indeed in this city, where I had been told the market was poor, but in a place two days’ journey away, where the news of the famous beast’s coming had already been spread. I then wandered out into the streets to take the cool air of the evening. It was as I had expected. When I returned to see that my horse had been well fed, Abd-ul-Eblis was present in the stable and eager to deal.
“He pointed out to me the advantages he enjoyed for disposing of horses, the dangers of the distant journey of which I had spoken to the groom, the possibility of what is called in the language of that country ‘a proposition.’ He showed me what, in my innocence, I might have forgotten, that it was not as though the horse was my own. That I could only be a gainer. That my master would be none the wiser. That I might pretend any accident to have taken place (for indeed such an accident was likely if I went on farther). He also was at the pains of repeating what I might have forgotten, that I was free to retain for myself some portion of the price, assuring me that he would keep silent upon the matter. In the end I promised to hand him over the horse for sixty pieces of gold.
“There are some men, my dear nephews, who even in these circumstances would have begun bargaining for a higher price. These are men who love the making of small sums and who do not understand the enormous weight of caprice and chance in human affairs. So far from attempting to get a higher price, I expressed my gratitude and said that for my part I was quite willing to take less, but that I somewhat feared my master’s anger and could not return to him without at least fifty pieces of gold, adding that I considered ten pieces a sufficient reward for myself. At the same time I advised Abdul not to sell the saddle with the horse, nor did I omit to remind him that horses of a light colour are more easily dyed than those of a darker hue.
“At these suggestions of mine he looked upon me mournfully for a few moments and then slowly counted out sixty pieces of gold. I took a long farewell of the kindly, patient, and beautiful animal, which had borne me to this fortune in the short space of one day, and then walked forth through the city into the evening, preferring the chance of a lodging in the forest to tempting further the singular Fate that had so far befriended me.
“The weather was warm, the neighbouring wood, as I knew by experience, hospitable. There would I spend the few hours of darkness, building myself a small fire to keep off the beasts and to cherish me. Thence, I did not doubt, I could the next morning, with now so satisfactory a capital, proceed to the re-edification of my fortune.
“I reached the wooded hill which overlooked the city. I recited my third night prayers. Before building my fire and disposing myself to sleep, I looked at the outline of the walls and domes and graceful minarets against the last of the evening, and I revolved in my mind that thought which shall ever be mine on my departure from any town. Let it also be yours, my dear children, in all your travels.
“For just as when you come to a new city of a morning, before you enter it, and after having prayed God, you should muse within yourself what sums of money you may hope to lift from its inhabitants; so when you leave any city at evening, never omit (after due thanks to your Creator!) to calculate what sums you have indeed subtracted from those to whom you bid farewell.”
As the old merchant ceased it was like the ending of a strain of solemn music, the echoes of which linger and continue in the memory. The strangely moving words he had uttered stirred a profound in the depths of their young souls, and they sat with bowed heads until the horrid outrage of the muezzin’s call murdered that sacred silence.
At the signal the lads rose and filed out on tiptoe leaving their uncle with his eyes closed and his lips murmuring in prayer.
XI
Al-Wali, or “The Holy One”
When the hour of public executions had arrived
