VIII
Al-Bustán, or “The Orchard”
When Mahmoud’s nephews reappeared before him at the hour of public executions it was in a certain weariness of spirit; for though they knew that the fortunes of their uncle must subsequently be recovered in the narrative (since there he was before them, rolling, or, as the phrase went in Baghdad, “dripping” with it) yet the blows of fate had fallen upon him with such violence in the recent tale that something of his then despair had entered their own souls. They sat down therefore with hanging heads to listen, as they feared, to little better than the further advance of intolerable things.
The old man began in a subdued voice of lamentable recollection:
“I wandered on through the bare uplands, miserable, weak, penniless and in rags. So far had my soul fallen that on the seventh day I came near to omitting my prayer at even … but I thank Heaven that this temptation was conquered! I knelt down painfully upon the little carpet which was my last possession and submitted myself to the will of Allah.
“As though in answer to my prayer, and while I still knelt there, I saw afar off the figure of one who moved, as I could see from that distance, with a carriage of leisure, and I hoped—I dared to hope—that in answer to my prayer, I will not say a victim, but, at any rate, some provender was to be afforded me.
“I hastened my steps to catch up the stranger, and as I approached him remarked with pleasure his fine clothes and stately manner. ‘I have here,’ said I to myself, ‘some important man, someone doubtless unused to the base necessities of commerce; simple, noble in mind, straightforward, generous, amply provided: the very companion whom I should desire.’ I turned over in my mind (as I slackened my steps for a moment, so that he should not yet observe my arrival) various schemes whereby I might excuse my intrusion upon his solitary walk. At last I hit on that which seemed to me the most agreeable to his supposed circumstances and to my appearance. I strode up to him and bowing low asked him whether his Greatness could direct a poor wretch to a certain village the name of which I had heard and which lay more or less in the direction I had taken.
“The stranger turned to salute me and with that I felt an added delight. For he was the very thing I had prayed. Young, simple in manner, courteous, probably, by his dress, independent and wealthy; probably, as our language has it, ‘his own father.’
“He wore rare ornaments; his cloak was of the finest wool and the cord that bound his headdress was interspersed with silver.
“By way of reply to my request, he told me in a pleasant, deep voice, speaking after the fashion of the rich, that he was himself strolling towards it so far as his own house and farm, which lay between, and that there he would put me upon my way. I expressed my gratitude, and my fear lest so bedraggled a companion might be distasteful to him. He smiled and assured me that he loved nothing better than converse. He had visited a neighbour that morning to ask advice on a certain set of pear trees of his which had not been doing well. He had left his servant to follow him with his mount, preferring this hour’s stroll back homewards in the cool of the sunset hour which had now descended.
“As we went we talked of many things and I frankly told him the story of my life; for I have discovered that nothing is more pleasing to men of his station than the account of how another has been reduced from wealth to poverty.
“ ‘I was not always,’ said I, as I strolled by his side, ‘the deplorable figure you now see me. Indeed, but a very few months ago I was the over-manager of a great fruit plantation some hundred miles to the north of this place. I had come with good recommendations from my former employers, planters of the Gulf. I had left these my original masters with the best of characters and the kindest of recommendations, and only because the eldest son of one of the partners had to be put into the business and there was no room for both of us. I had accumulated in some years of useful service a sufficient little capital which my kind masters were so exceedingly generous as to double, and I was able to put the total sum into the new business to which I had been recommended. For it is always better,’ I added, ‘to have some stake in the firm.’
“ ‘You are right,’ said my new friend in hearty approval. ‘There is no greater error than to offer a firm such intangible things as talent, honesty and the rest. Valuable as they are, if they are unaccompanied by metal they are without substance and void.’
“With an expression of great humility I applauded his reply and told him how flattered I was to find that my judgment had jumped with his. ‘But, alas, Sir!’ I continued deferentially, ‘There is no controlling the current of our destinies! For there is One above—’
“ ‘I know, I know!’ agreed my companion hurriedly, in the tones of one to whom the sentiment was familiar and at the same time doubtful, and I continued:
“ ‘By that Divine Will,’ I went on, ‘was I visited. Heaven saw fit to try its servant. In the course of my management I was sent to negotiate the purchase of a cargo of lime-dressing at the nearest port, for use upon the plantation. On my way I had the misfortune to be robbed at an inn of the pouch of gold that had been confided to me. I ought, of course, to have returned at once and told my partners and employers what had happened, and to have offered, perhaps, to repair out of my own property what might look like the result of my own negligence; but I was afraid lest I should not be believed, and again lest, if I were believed, the loss should prejudice me in their eyes as an incompetent. What I did was to go forward to the port that very day, penniless, and trust to the credit of my firm to complete the transaction I had in hand.
“ ‘But once again I was unfortunate! I carried through the negotiations with success and purchased the cargo upon very reasonable terms. I delayed to the last moment the payment of earnest money and then, when delay would no longer serve, I said carelessly, that full payment would follow by messenger within two days. The merchant’s face darkened. He told me that he had been led on by false pretences, roughly bade me begone and would hear no more of the transaction. He refused to sign, and indeed left me abruptly, saying that he was off to seek another purchaser and telling me at the same time that he was seriously considering whether or no to summon me before the magistrate for having thus lost him a whole day upon a false pretence.
“ ‘He was as good as his word, and I received a summons from the magistrate that very evening to attend his court the next day.
“ ‘It was unfortunate that during the night another theft took place in the inn where I lay. The bundles of those staying at the place were searched. My own alone contained no valuables of any kind. One would have thought that such a circumstance would have spoken in my favour. It was exactly the other way. It was argued that a man who will stay in an inn without the means of paying must be a thief of some sort and that since the sum stolen was not to be found elsewhere it was probably I, thus manifestly suspect of trickery, who was the culprit. In my fright I attempted to escape. I was caught and roughly handled, with the final result that I appeared in the magistrate’s court covered with blood, my garments torn and in such a posture subjected to a double accusation upon the part of the innkeeper and also upon the part of the foreign merchant who appeared upon the original charge.
“ ‘In such distress I had no avenue of escape save a reference to my honoured firm, the name of which, though distant, was familiar to the court. The magistrate expressed his doubt that I had any connection with such important people, and asked me if I would risk the sending of a messenger to my so-called partners. I said I would do so gladly, but during the two days’ interval of the messenger’s absence I was closely confined in the public prison, where I regret to say the foreign merchant had the heartlessness to come and make faces at me through the bars, and where, having no money to give my gaolers, I was treated with the utmost harshness.
“ ‘My misfortunes were not at an end. As luck would have it the firm to which I belonged and of whose books I had the sole management, undertook a surprise audit on the very day of my departure, and discovered a most serious deficit in one item which the partners, in their ignorance, could not account for. Had I been present I could easily have explained what had happened. It was but an advance which I had made to a customer whose transactions with us were of the highest value. As much in my own interests as in those of my partners I was well justified in risking the money. I had acted foolishly perhaps in refusing to take a receipt or to enter the matter in the books, but the thing was only for a week and after so many years of prosperity I could not dream of so small a thing turning out untowardly. However, there it was. My partners hurriedly sent after me and learned to their dismay that I had left the first inn upon the road without payment, and giving no account of my future movements. They had sent a man post-haste on a swift horse. He had covered the distance to the port in twelve hours, but (as I was now in prison), could discover nothing of me in the town nor find any cargo I had bought or, indeed, any trace of me. He returned to my partners, as they had instructed him, upon another beast as swift (having sold his spent mount) and it was just as they received this grave news of my apparent absconding, just while my partners grew more and more convinced of my supposed guilt, that the messenger from the magistrate arrived and completed the accusation. They answered, not by coming in person, but by sending a letter of the most violent kind, calling me a notorious thief, expressing their pleasure that I had been laid by the heels and begging that, so far as they were concerned, the magistrate would not spare me in any punishment he might see fit to inflict for my other escapades. Meanwhile (they said) they would not trouble him to enter judgment for the sum I had taken, since they had replaced it out of my capital in the firm, which nearly, or exactly, made good the deficit.
“ ‘You may imagine, my lord, the result of all this! The magistrate read the court a sermon on the justice of the law which spared no man for his rank or commerce, and concluded, “You have before you the sad spectacle of a man of substance fallen through temptation into poverty and disgrace.” The foreign merchant contemptuously waived his action, the innkeeper with equal contempt expressed himself satisfied with the punishment I had already undergone, claiming only my clothes by way of payment, giving me these few rags in exchange. With yet another admonition the magistrate dismissed me. I went out from the court a broken man, wandered aimlessly southward, doing a little work here and there upon the farms, and I am now seeking the next village with the object of offering my services.
“ ‘Such, Sir,’ I concluded, ‘is my tale. … Here am I, with every commercial aptitude, and full training in the various transactions of business (but especially in the management of plantations) for no fault of my own unable to exercise these talents, rehabilitate my character, and recover my position in society.’
“The rich young man was deeply touched by my story, every word of which, I am glad to say, he seemed to believe; for I was not deceived in my reading of character and I had rightly guessed that a man under thirty, honest-faced and clearly enjoying leisure and wealth would be singularly open to the reception of any romantic tale that might be offered to him.
“ ‘It is indeed fortunate,’ he answered, ‘that you understand plantations. It is a matter in which I am for the moment interested. I have an orchard which is not doing well.’ He had evidently forgotten his first sentence on our meeting which had given me my clue. But rich and generous natures are like that in early youth: hence, also, are they bad players in games of skill.
“ ‘Come with me,’ he continued, ‘and pass the night in my house yonder’ (it already lay before us in the hollow); ‘the conversation on your past life, which is doubtless full of adventures, will entertain me at my meal. Tomorrow I will see that you have occupation upon my farm, and after a short experiment I think we shall get along very well indeed together, particularly as I have recently planted by way of experiment a number of pear trees which—as I think I just told you—are not doing well. I thought myself able from my general knowledge to conduct this orchard, but I regret to say that some of the trees have died, and that the rest are in a poor way. I evidently lack the special experience required. Since plantations are your special line you may be of the greatest service to me in this little matter.’
“Here, my dear nephews, I was in something of a quandary. This, I am told, is a difficulty we men of affairs come across often enough in the conduct of our negotiations. It is our duty, as I need hardly tell you, to add details of a corroborative kind to the statements we have to make in affairs. To omit any detail is to court suspicion. On the other hand, one never knows where the most necessary fictions may lead one. Here I was confronted by the task of bringing to fruition an orchard … an orchard of pears … and I knew nothing whatever of orchards and of pears far less.
“I replied, therefore, with the greatest enthusiasm that the opportunity was exactly what I should have desired. Orchards were the one kind of plantation I had most carefully studied, and of all fruits pears were those upon which I had specialised most. Once I had seen the kind of tree my kind host had planted I should certainly be able to tell him what was the matter.
“It was almost dark when we came to his enclosure, but so eager was he on his new idea that he led me at once to the back of the house where the trees were planted. Very sickly indeed did their gaunt twigs look in the gloaming. A good third of them were shrivelled and dead, the rest drooped in various degrees, one only gave a promise of fruit out of some three hundred stems. The rich man surveyed the ruin and gazed at me anxiously while I held my chin in my hand as though meditating upon the best course for him to pursue, but in reality considering my own.
“Then it was, my dear infants, that I received from on High one of those illuminations which have always been, with me, the forerunners of great things. I deliberately kept the rich young man waiting for the space of a long prayer and then said suddenly and with determination, ‘Scrap the lot! … Excuse me,’ I added, ‘I have used a phrase current in the barbaric cities of the north, which is somewhat corrupt in speech. My intention was to express to Your Highness my conviction, formed upon this rapid survey in gathering darkness, that the orchard can no longer be saved, for I am sure my judgment will be confirmed when I make a more thorough examination tomorrow morning in broad day. I see also, even in this light, that the type of tree you have planted is wholly unsuited to the climate. May I be so bold as to ask where you purchased the stock?’
“ ‘I was assured,’ answered my new friend a little shamefacedly, ‘that it was stock grown within this very region and peculiarly adapted for our dry climate: for the drought of our position which, as you know, stands too high for waterways.’
“I shook my head. ‘You were deceived,’ said I. ‘Who sold you this unsuitable stock?’
“He told me that it was a sound friend of his who had gone off for a while upon a journey, that he was quite sure he had not intended to deceive. ‘Perhaps there was some error in the consignment shipped to you,’ I answered cheerfully as we turned towards the house. ‘This kind does admirably in the River Lowlands, and I take it your friend’s servants by some mistake sent your consignment to some lowland client and his to you in these uplands. Anyhow, the orchard is manifestly doomed, as you can see, and for my part I make no doubt that the trouble has come from the use of a wrong species. Now what you want here,’ I continued rapidly, turning over my chances well in my mind, and plumping for technical terms, ‘is a pear neither palinate nor sublongate, nor, for that matter perforate, but daxullic, or, as we sometimes call it in the trade “retarded”—at any rate in the second and third stirp.’
“ ‘I see; I understand; I apprehend,’ said the rich young man. For thus, have I discovered, do rich young men carry on a conversation which leaves them entirely at sea.
“ ‘I do not,’ I hastened to add, ‘insist, of course, upon the Persian stock, though that is the best. It might be difficult to procure and it is very expensive. What I mean is something of the same family. I should advise, as a stock more easily purchased in the local markets, the pear called by the merchants “The Glory of Heaven.”
“ ‘It was introduced some few years ago by my friend Nasredin and is now a favourite stock on the Plateau of Reshed where the climate is very similar to yours. It bears a large, luscious fruit, highly marketable, and maturing early; and it can be purchased at a moderate expense. I will, if you like, go for you to the nearest provider of such things and see what I can do.’
“My host thanked me profusely. He remarked how small the world was and at the same time how manifest were the workings of Providence. He blessed the day when he had met me. For though (he said), the matter of expense did not weigh upon him, he had made a particular point of success in the matter of pear trees, and but for my advice he really did not know what he should have done.
“He was so keen upon the affair that he pressed me to start for the nearest nurseryman the very next morning. There was an excellent nursery plantation, he said, not more than half a day’s ride away to the West. It stood, with the owner’s house in the midst, just outside the gates of the town to which he would direct me, either going himself or sending his bailiff with me. He would also send a wagon for the conveyance of the young shoots. Indeed, as the meal progressed (for we were now dining), he grew more and more enthusiastic on the matter and could hardly bear the delay of the night. I saw which way the land lay and saw fit to increase his keenness. I therefore told him it was quite impossible to act with such speed. ‘The young shoots,’ said I, ‘must not be left to lie untended and unplanted. We must first of all prepare the ground. The old trees must be dug up, the pits enlarged. It is the narrowness of the earthing that has been half your trouble, for the smaller root tendrils which we call “trips” are easily estopped in hard groundings.’ ‘I see!’ said he, sapiently. ‘The ground must be well soaked,’ I continued, ‘and manured with a full dressing of lime, and only when all this has been completed could I think of advising you to plant.’
“I paused to concoct something new, and the amiable youth filled the gap for me by murmuring: ‘Precisely! Exactly! Now I understand.’
“I resumed: ‘Further we must underpin the runners and work up the earth herring-wise. And then there is the daubing. … It will be a matter of full three days’ work. On the fourth day I can set out before sunrise. You may take it that I will be back by evening, and we will, if you please, plant the very next morning—that is on the fifth day—lest the stock should suffer; for I have always found it,’ I added profoundly, ‘of invariable service to plant immediately. I have indeed lost in the past one or two most valuable sets of trees—pear trees—by delaying at this season of the year so much as twenty-four hours before putting them in the ground.’
“As I thus spoke he nodded frequently, admiring my talent and knowledge of these affairs, and I took occasion, as evening wore on, to ground him yet more deeply in this fascinating subject, which I had already begun to feel was mine.
“The next day with the first of the light we both of us set out to the orchard. He summoned his workmen and our labours engrossed us for many hours during which I fed his enthusiasm with renewed tales of marvels in the way of fruit-growing—and especially of pear trees. That particular pear called ‘The Glory of Heaven’ increased wonderfully as I proceeded until at last it had grown to such a size that each individual fruit was as large as a child’s head, and half a dozen of them would fetch a piece of gold ‘if’ (I was careful to add) ‘if they are properly packed! For I regret to say that, simple as the detail is, the neglect of good packing has been the ruin of most speculators in this line.’
“During the second day of our labours I dilated upon other details of the trade which occurred to me as I went along. I especially insisted upon what I called the ‘maximum point,’ and for this he was all ears.
“ ‘There is a limit,’ I said, ‘to your plantation, after which the expenses of management begin to eat into the profits earned. A first small speculation of 300 trees, such as you have here, is, of course, a mere bagatelle. It would provide you with amusement, but no appreciable income. The most profitable size of orchard is far larger. … In such a situation as yours,’ said I, looking round with an air of a connoisseur, ‘and with such soil as this,’ and with that I took up a clod and carefully crumbled it in my fingers, ‘possessing acidulated properties of this type, but corrected by some slow exhaust of porphyritic matter, it would need but a top dressing of bardulm and an occasional picketing of charcoal to make some 3,000 trees produce a regular annual profit of not less than 200 pieces of gold—and that upon an original expenditure less than double the amount. I would estimate your return with care and good fortune at quite fifty percent, but at any rate you could calculate upon thirty percent. But more than 3,000 trees,’ said I, musing, ‘would, I fear, be an error; the earnings after that get eaten into by expenses.’
“He interrupted me with the eager words: ‘I should be happy—’ I lifted my hand to check him and said, ‘No! I assure you, that even such a number as 3,500 would be just beyond the line, and as you approach 5,000 you would find the expense absorbing nearly all your profit. It is as great an error to overdo these things as to starve them. Let us fix the number at 3,000 and the capital expenditure at 400 pieces of gold. Then I think you will not be disappointed.’
“The third day I spent overlooking the levelling of the ground and its last preparation, as also in making mysterious marks with little pegs and jotting down notes in a book: all of which excited the owner to the last degree, and left him (as the phrase goes) with his tongue hanging out for the new trees.
“That evening my kind host after some little embarrassment made me an offer. Would I, he asked, share in the profits of the enterprise? I at once refused. My decision surprised him: but, as he pressed the project upon me, I told him that gratitude was only a part of my decision. I owed him everything; he had found me—it seemed a month ago indeed, though it was but three days—in rags; he had clothed me, fed me and, what was more, trusted me. His trust, I assured him, would not be deceived. ‘I shall be content,’ I concluded, ‘with the salary proper to my position’ (he at once mentioned a sum, which I halved), ‘but I will go so far as this; if, upon the opening of the fourth year, your profits shall be found to have exceeded what I have suggested, if you make in the three years more than 600 pieces of gold, at 200 pieces a year, which I suggest as the probable result, I will accept, though reluctantly, one half of the excess. For I am confident,’ and here I put an especially serious tone into my voice, ‘that we shall do better than I have said. I have ever held it my duty to give a conservative estimate and to avoid the disappointment of those who employ me. To this, among other things, do I ascribe the great success which attended me during my earlier years, and which only failed me through the deplorable accidents I related to you on our first meeting.’
“My host appeared a little confused at my probity, or rather, at my scruples; but he told me that he had always found such errors to be upon the right side, and assured me that I should not lose by the austerity of my temper. Nor did I. …
“We spent the rest of the evening looking at the illuminations in his fine library. I expressed myself enthralled by them all. I lingered with especial care over every representation of an orchard in these pictures, and spoke in the most learned manner of the various fruits therein displayed. As luck would have it we came to one particularly fine painting in which were delineated the most enormous pears of a brilliant golden hue interspersed with soft leaves. ‘This,’ I cried delightedly, ‘is the very fruit of which I have been speaking! How interesting! How exciting!’
“ ‘Is that so?’ said my host, transported at the coincidence, ‘Once more I must say it: how small is the world!’
“ ‘Yes,’ said I, ‘it is that pear “Glory of Heaven,” of which I have been speaking and which you may see, by comparison with the insects here portrayed and of the trellis work, to be most enormous fruit. Of its succulence I must leave you to judge when you shall gather your first harvest. Of its highly saleable quality in the markets of the north you will, I trust, soon have satisfactory experience.’
“ ‘I shall indeed!’ said my host, now quite beside himself with the combined emotions of the collector and the man of property. He blessed again and again the day he had the good fortune to meet such a man as myself. Summoning his bailiff he gave orders for the wagon to be prepared over night and the horses to be ready by sunrise. ‘No, no,’ said I, ‘an hour before sunrise, if you please! I am determined, at whatever inconvenience to myself, to have the plants back here, at your house, on the night of the same day. I will risk no failure in this great affair!’ Again he blessed and thanked me, and when his dependents were dismissed took me aside and prepared to count out the money which would be required for my expenditure.
“ ‘You said 400 pieces of gold,’ said he, as he disposed the coins in little heaps of ten upon the table. ‘You had better make it 500, for there may have been fluctuations in the market since you last purchased, and it is good that you should have a margin.’
“I told him I thought the provision a wise one, but that I would account for every penny when he should next see me. And this, curiously enough, was my true intention, though I could not have given him any very exact date for our next meeting. I wrote him out a formal receipt in spite of his protests, remarking that business was business; and so that every formality should be accomplished I signed the document in the name of an old friend of mine, one Daoud-ben-Yacoub. I said I would further have affixed my seal had I possessed one, but placed as I was, no such instrument was available.
“ ‘The ball of your thumb will do,’ said the young man carelessly. His words brought me up rather sharp, and it was not without trepidation that I acceded to this chance request. But once more the inspiration of Heaven served me. I dexterously substituted my middle finger for my thumb as I pressed the wax thereunder. This arrangement,” said the old merchant, as he crossed the two fingers in the presence of his nephews, by way of illustration, “I recommend you upon every occasion of life. It is especially useful in those tyrannical countries where the police take the thumb-marks of innocent wayfarers. I have used it a dozen times. … But to return to my tale.
“I pattered on to my kind host as I pressed my finger down, and thus distracted his attention from too close a watch on my hand. ‘This thumb mark,’ said I, releasing my middle finger from the wax, ‘this thumb mark is as good as any signature, I think; for Allah has made it the sign manual of all honest men; no two are alike. Remember, pray,’ I added laughingly, ‘that it was the thumb of my right hand.’
“ ‘I will,’ said he, laughing in turn. ‘As you say, these are mere formalities. I do not think the less of you for your insistence upon their performance.’
“With these words we parted in the greatest mutual satisfaction. He to dream of this fine new plantation and his coming wealth, but I to pour out my soul in prayer to my Maker and humbly to ask for further guidance.
“Next morning while it was yet dark I rose and mounted, the bailiff at my side, and the slaves taking the wagons behind. Early as was the hour my kind host was astir; he gave me his blessing for the tenth time on my departure and poured out petitions for my safe return. I hung the pouch of gold to my saddle bow, where I securely fastened it; I took the weapon with which he had kindly provided me in case of any misadventure by the road, and left him under the benediction of God. I thought a little sadly, as we rode out in silence through the gate and out on to the bare uplands again, how transitory were all human affections. How short had been this episode of friendship and hospitality! How brief even in the short course of one human life are these passages of complete confidence and brotherly kindness! When should we meet again?
“Of my journey there is little to be related. We plodded on, our pace necessarily determined by that of the slow wagon following us and my mind still turned upon what my future action should be; for, to tell you the truth, my dear nephews, Allah had vouchsafed me no revelation, in spite of my earnest prayers during the night, and I was still considering what turn I should give to the affair when once more that Infinite Mercy which has never failed me (or, at any rate, only for some short few days and even so but to chastise my pride) came to my rescue.
“There are, in this country, deep gullies called nullahs, the course of streams which run but rarely on these heights, but which, when they run, dig their channels deeply into the friable soil. The crossing of these gullies by any rolling vehicle is something of a business. As we reached one, therefore (they came at intervals of two or three miles) the bailiff and I were careful to dismount and help the slaves with the wheels.
“It was while thus engaged during our careful drop into the second nullah that the inspiration from on high flashed into my brain. I perceived that the wheels of the wagon were fastened to the hub with wooden pins, one of which, at the off-hind wheel which I was holding back, looked a little loose. The slaves had their backs turned to me, holding back the front wheels, and checking the horses; at the other hind wheel, with the body of the front wagon between us and concealing his view from mine, strained and heaved the bailiff, a fat, elderly rogue, unaccustomed to such work. I pulled out the pin, threw it into the depths of the neighbouring scrub, and as I did so continued to cry, ‘Steady there! Steady! So! Hold hard! That’s better! Woa-oh! Stand by!’ and other words of the sort, which showed my interest in the operation. I could see the wheel wobbling as we crossed the flat bed of the nullah. At the foot of the far rise it was nearly off. The time had come. ‘Now!’ I cried suddenly, ‘All together! Whip up the horses and shove!’ The whips cracked, the slaves hauled at the traces, the horses strained, up went the wagon, off came the wheel and the whole collapsed upon one side with a great din and with a sharp cracking, as though something had given way.
“And so it proved to be; for the main axle, though not snapped, had split; so there we were with the wagon out of service for the moment, the axle unsure, a hind wheel off, and the whole contraption on its side.
“The bailiff was seriously disturbed. It seemed that my kind host was a firm master, that he had his moments of sharp temper; and the bailiff bewailed his fate and considered what awaited him on his return. I laughed good-naturedly and reassured him.
“ ‘Come, come,’ said I, ‘it is no great matter! I understand these things. Do you ride on towards the town. I will help the slaves put back the wheel. We will make some sort of jury pin to put into the hub, we will tie a rope round the cracked axle, and all will be well. We are men enough between us to repair the wagon, but you, as I say, ride forward. I shall soon catch you up.’
“The bailiff was relieved at this proof of my efficiency and good will, and delighted to be released from the work to which he was quite unused. He rode on at a moderate pace while the slaves and I heaved the wagon back upright. I fashioned a jury pin out of a piece of the scrub and I was careful to make it too weak for its work. We bound a piece of rope round the axle and when all this was done I bade them go forward carefully lest a further accident should befall. I then rode on smartly to catch up the bailiff, who had by this time got about a mile ahead. As I neared him I looked back from an intervening rise of land. It was as I had anticipated. The jury pin had given way, and the wagon was on its side again: but the lift of land soon hid it from me and down on the further slope I caught up the bailiff, ambling along. ‘The wagon is all right,’ said I, ‘but it will have to go rather slow.’ He gave a great sigh of content. ‘Thanks be!’ said he. ‘Truly you are a genius!’
“ ‘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 and its purchase.
“But though time pressed it would have been fatal to show any too great speed. I therefore sauntered very gradually in my fine clothes, afoot, bearing my pouch in my hand concealed under the fold of my garment, until I reached a gathering of merchants outside a sort of exchange which this town of Taftah boasted, like others of the neighbourhood, in the vicinity of the governor’s palace.
“It was there that, during a conversation which, for all my anxiety, I took care to make slow and dignified, I learned how dates were in great demand in a large city called Laknes, about two weeks’ journey beyond the hills. It was, to a business man like myself, a most fascinating story that I heard! The people of that far country were passionately fond of dates and gave that fruit the briskest market imaginable. Their appetite had grown all the more formidable since the next people immediately beyond them had passed a law prohibiting the culture and sale of all dates on account of the toothache sometimes arising from that fruit. With this reduction of supply Laknes became more of a bidder for dates than ever. Great rewards were offered to any taking the fruit to such a market. The last advices, not a month old, quoted thirty dinars the kantar and were rising. The merchants designed to despatch a caravan the day after the morrow.
“With equal leisure and dignity I left them after this little talk and made it my immediate business in the next half-hour to procure with the capital at my disposal a number of camels and a couple of bales of dates for each, together with a few slaves that should conduct the caravan to its destination; I also hired a free man for a leader, as he was acquainted with the road.
“By this time it was nearly dark. I had given orders (in order to conceal my movements) that I should not start till late in the week, but I had also given a child a small coin to come up to me, upon a signal, with a piece of paper folded, upon which indeed nothing was written. Just as the camels were being driven off to their litter, I signalled to the child, who ran up and gave me the note. I opened it before the head man, put on an air of great perturbation, and said, ‘This message changes all my plans! I fear I disturb you, but will you start out tonight?’
“ ‘Willingly,’ said he. ‘We have provisions, and I know a good place on the road where we can purchase more tomorrow. The weather is warm and if your business demands haste, it may be better to march during the cool.’ The slaves (who were not consulted) were no doubt agreeable enough. We set out and all that night went our way.
“It was a monotonous journey through an arid land, with few towns or villages, sufficient watering, but no more. Though I pressed the pace we lost no beasts, and on the twelfth day, with the cool of the evening, we reached Laknes.
“My camels were parked, I took my place in the chief inn of the city (under the name of Ishmaïl-of-Taftah, merchant), and my first act before ordering a meal was, again, from the very bottom of my heart, to thank Allah for the return of his mercies. My capital was, indeed, nearly exhausted. I had but a few pieces of gold left in my garment, and the pouch was empty; but there was my solid row of camels and my fine cargo of dates. I made no doubt I should sell at a good profit next day and that my career was once more launched. I took care to speak to all openly of my arrival, to hint at my wealth, to make all familiar with the name of Ishmaïl-of-Taftah, a merchant in dates which it was proposed to offer next day in the market. For there are occasions, my dear nephews, in commerce when it is perfectly advisable to tell the truth and even to spread it abroad.”
With these unexpected words the merchant Mahmoud suddenly ceased his tale, for the shriek of the muezzin was heard rending the air. The nephews rose and bowed. “We trust,” said the eldest, “that when we next appear we shall find you, my dear uncle, climbing from greatness to greatness in the story you still have to unfold.”
“Alas, my children,” answered the venerable sage, “I fear you must hear of other disappointments before the goal is reached!”
At this the youngest boy put forth his lower lip, which trembled, and began screwing up his eyes.
“Stop!” said the merchant testily. “Stop! My little fellow! I have had enough of this!”
“Oh, Uncle,” sobbed the boy, “I cannot bear to think that perhaps all that new wealth will be stolen from you.”
“Stop, I say!” shouted Mahmoud angrily, and half-rising, “I tell you I have had enough of it! I appreciate your motive. I admire your judgment. It is marvellous in so young a child. But I cannot be disturbed with useless tears at things so long past. You show too great a sympathy. You are too sensitive my dear.”
The child saluted, assumed a more equable appearance, and followed his brothers out of the room, while Mahmoud, his equipoise a little disturbed by the incident, set himself right by the simple process of drawing from one sleeve a handful of coins and counting them out slowly into the other: a pastime which never failed to restore him to the best of tempers.