“Restraining too great an evidence of haste, I told him that my mind was already made up and that I would be honoured to accept his second offer.
“ ‘I think, Mahmoud,’ said he, rising, ‘that you have acted with wisdom, though perhaps with a little precipitation. Let us, then, regard the matter as settled. Every evening my servants will call upon you for one-half of your takings, and they meanwhile will protect you in every way.’
“I prostrated myself once more, kissed the ground at his feet, and left the hut in a very different mood from that in which I had entered it.
“I remained in the camp for the matter of about a month. I extended my operations; and every evening the servants of the Holy One attended me and I handed over half of my takings. During the whole of that period my capital continued to increase prodigiously.
“But no good endures forever. The time came when this even tenor was threatened in a very unexpected way.
“The Holy One was visited by certain ambassadors from the Grand Something or Other residing in the court of the Caliph, who informed him that his position was duly recognized by the authorities, and that they bore with them an illuminated charter confirming it. The temporal advantages of His Holiness’s trade, however, were no less clearly evident to the Caliph than the religious ones, and His Holiness would therefore be good enough in future to hand over one-half of his receipts to the imperial treasury.
“Heaven knows with what bitterness the Holy Man agreed; which, having done, he sent for me again and told me that it was now necessary for him to ask me for three-fourths of my receipts. In vain did I point out to him that all great empires had fallen by the increase of taxation. He was adamant, and I therefore reluctantly agreed to the new arrangement; taking a solemn oath to observe it for at least one year. But I asked him whether at the expiration of that time, in case I should find the new bargain more than I could support, I might depart out of the city? To this he agreed, and confirmed it with an oath equally solemn.
“That night I put together all my accumulated wealth (which now filled not less than four large bags with gold and silver) and charging it upon the mule of a peculiarly devout and therefore unobservant and abstracted pilgrim, and drawing the innocent beast away in the darkness by the bridle, I left the camp as slowly and cautiously as I might.
“Emissaries were sent out to kill me within half an hour of my departure. As I heard their approach I turned my mule round towards the camp as though I were arriving, and as they passed me, I said I was a pilgrim who had lost his way in the night and asked if I were on the right road for the shrine. This simple ruse deceived them. They went their way and I was alone once more. Still, their passage sufficiently alarmed me. I gave up the road for a less frequented path and wandered all that night through an unfamiliar district, for my poor beast could go no faster than a walking pace, so heavy were the bags of treasure which he bore.
“By dawn I felt myself secure, and—”
But here the old gentleman heard the first intolerable note of the muezzin and stopped short, motioning to his nephews that they should leave him, which they did with their customary humility, each wondering in his heart whether he might not later feel a vocation to the Religious Life.
XII
Al-Mahallat al-Jadida, or “The New Quarter of the City”
“As I proceeded the next morning across the waste” (continued Mahmoud to his nephews on their next visit) “I turned over in my mind how best to employ the considerable sum which my honest mule bore so patiently upon his back. Here was a year’s sustenance for fifty labourers or more, and with so much money a man earns more. For, as it is written in the Holy Book, ‘The labourer is worthy of his hire, but whatever is over is not for him.’ And again, ‘Blessed are the poor.’
“There are not wanting occasions for the employment of poorer men and the gathering of the fruits of their labour into one’s own pouch. But there is one difficulty in all such matters, which is the point of judgment.
“You will recollect (my dear nephews) how often in the past a most careful investment of mine had gone wrong, and how often a mere hazard, not even of my own choosing, had brought me sudden fortune. How in the matter of the sheep I was beaten almost to death by the market-police, while in the matter of the horse I had sold, three times over, an animal that had cost me nothing and had fallen to me by the pure goodness of God. How in the matter of the dates I had been left penniless by a man of greater business sense, foresight, organizing ability, eye for the market, knowledge of men, and the rest of the virtues; while in the matter of the Holy Man I had—as my weary mule proved—done extremely well
