“After sunset I counted my money. I had left precisely fifty pieces of gold: a close aim, a narrow edge of venture. But, as the proverb says, ‘The bold hunter slays the lion, the timid is slain of the cub.’
“It was late in that same night that the chief magistrate knocked at my door with the greatest precaution, bearing a hooded lantern, and walking on tiptoe. He begged me as an old friend (but in a whisper) to sell him so much land in the new quarter as might suffice for a good house and garden, suitable for his son or even for himself. I told him that I would have no sordid dealings with so excellent a friend. I could not do less than give him such a site.
“I brought out a plan (on which the engineer had already drawn out streets and public squares) and marked upon the main thoroughfare the plot I would assign to him. He departed with praise and blessings. Hardly had he gone when a yet more furtive step approached my door. It was the mufti. He offered me a hundred pieces of gold for such a site. I generously gave him for fifty a larger one than he had ventured to beg. I marked it somewhat farther down the same main thoroughfare. He went away belauding my name and soul.
“It was near midnight when another footfall halted at my door: a councillor’s. For fifty pieces he also had a site worth double, and in the same street. He had not gone an hour, it was the darkest of the night, when a much fainter shuffling of bare feet could be just perceived followed by a light trying of the latch. The door was opened a crack and the strong emaciated face of the ascetic twisted round the edge and peered in. I beckoned him. He put his finger to his lips, cautiously secured the fastening of the lock—and then, bending forward, whispered in my ear. … I was a little surprised at the magnitude of his offer, but of course I accepted it at once. Such men have great influence with the faithful. He proposed to let his property or perhaps to hold for a rise. He would continue of course to live in his humble cell outside the city, in the wastes. He departed quickly and like a ghost. At dawn came yet another councillor, more bold than the rest, who made a plain business proposition for block fifty-three and was at once gratified.
“So for days the procession continued, each man coming singly and watching whether he were observed. Half the council had sites for little or nothing, and the other half had sites at rates really very reasonable.
“And all the while, to the mass of buyers who importuned me and clamoured about me, I said that only very limited sales could be made, and those of leases only, and even so not till a later date.
“Meanwhile the whole town council was converted. The councillors had quite lost their old aversion to the scheme. They earmarked enthusiastically and by a unanimous vote a special tax for the laying out of the new quarter, its planting with trees, the bringing of conduits to it so that fountains of sweet water might appear in private houses and in public places, and, though the levy was no light one, it was paid cheerfully enough by all the councillors, who were now curiously proud of their town’s aggrandizement; even among the mass of poor ratepayers there were no executions, but only one mild case of torture, and perhaps a dozen bastinadoes.
“The public money so spent was very well worth while. The improvement in my property was immense; and when a fine road, bordered with trees, was laid down all along the embankment I obtained very heavy compensation from the city for the use of the ground and the cutting off of my approaches to the river.
“I, on my side, was not niggardly. I promised 100 gold pieces to the building of a new mosque in the centre of the place, on condition that ninety-nine others should do the same, and I started a hall of public recreation, the price of admission to which barely repaid the expenses of upkeep and cleaning, taxes, heat and light, interest on debentures (which I had myself very handsomely subscribed), service, literature, and secretarial expenses, decoration, approaches, annual depreciation, and at the most a profit of six to eight percent. I also provided kitchens where the poorer citizens could purchase food at very little more than its value. These were of great service to the police, who had here a central place whence the movements of my less fortunate neighbours could be traced. I presented also public fountains with solid pewter mugs, attached to the stonework by strong chains lest they should be stolen, and I even went so far as to provide, free of all cost, public plans of the new quarter showing where unleased sites still remained and the terms on which they might be acquired.
“I made it a rule that any man building a house on my land should promise to give it up to me for nothing after twenty years; but as many people were too poor to build their own houses I established a fund whence they could borrow the money at the ordinary rates of interest and the few dues, fees, deductions, etc., inevitable to such transactions. In every way did I develop and benefit this my creation of a new town.
“I had my reward in the profound respect and honour paid me by my
