As Mahmoud’s nephews filed in just after the hour of public executions to hear the continuation of their uncle’s absorbing tale, they wore an expression different from that which he had observed on their faces during so many days. The thought of this great man subjected to misfortune like any other, and passing through the trials of actual poverty, had shocked their young and sensitive souls. They had been trained indeed, even in their short experience, to the idea that they and their poor father must suffer contempt; but that the head of the family should ever have passed through such things shook their faith in the world.

The aged merchant, a little concerned with their appearance, warned them that what he had to tell them, not only upon that day but later too, would be concerned with no happy relation. “These were, my children,” said he, “the days of my dereliction. They served to humble me, and often when I have occasion to turn a poor man out of his house or to prosecute some starving widow for debt, or to see to the imprisonment of one who has failed to keep some contract I may have imposed upon him, I sigh and chasten myself with the thought that I myself might (but for the infinite goodness of my God) have been in his or her position. Though, frankly, I cannot say, considering the ineptitude of such people, that I can ever imagine them in mine.” Having so prefaced what he had to tell, the merchant proceeded:

“I sat down, then, in the bows of the boat on that miserable night watching for land. I tried to make some plan, as is the habit of men of my temper, but none would form itself in my fatigued and unhappy brain. One asset I had and one only (over and above the few coins which could hardly last me for more than a day) and that was the dress I wore; for I still carried the fine clothes of my former rank. I had worn them on the occasion of the trial; indeed, I now had no others.

“This accoutrement and a certain proud manner of bearing which I had acquired during the past years of my affluence saved me from insult; though I am not sure that if I had been asked to carry some package for the wealthier of the passengers I should not have accepted the opportunity of reward. I spent about half my poor handful of cash on a meal; with the remainder I purchased provision for the evening.

“The town in which I found myself was—happily—too busy and populous a mart to pay attention to a chance wanderer. Lacking all direction, trusting as I had trusted long ago to fortune or rather to Providence, I betook myself after the worst heat of the day had passed, to a chance track which led first along the river side, above the harbour, and afterwards climbed through the gardens of the city to the hills beyond.

“The countryside was here of a nature more fertile than the countries through which I had hitherto passed. The dense trees of the woods made a grateful shade for me in that silent afternoon, and when I had passed beyond these on my upward journey I came to a great rolling land of sparse grass, feed for cattle.

“It was hired out, it would seem, to graziers; for I saw some little way off standing in the attitude of a shepherd and holding his bent staff beside his vigorous old frame, a very remarkable figure. I approached him without any set idea of what my adventure might lead to. I only knew that things could not be worse. Perhaps I had somewhere in my mind a guess, half-formed, that I could be of some service at some small wage. At any rate I accosted him. I have seldom seen an expression more haughty and vigorous and marvelled that it should be that of a hired man. He was perhaps sixty years of age with a strong bearing, eyes luminous and almost fierce, and a face in outline that of a hawk, or better, that of an eagle. And as he stood there he watched, grazing before him, a great flock of sheep, well fed, and fat; of a high breed, excellent to behold. There were at least a thousand of these and it would seem that the religion of this part (for they also were true believers) did not forbid the use of bells. For I heard a multitudinous tinkling come up from the flock as it moved. Very far away the plateau made an edge against the sky, and between that horizon and the summit to which I had reached, folds, with water pools concealed in them, diversified the great sweep. But there were no trees. All was bare and majestic under the sky as the light melted towards evening.

“The shepherd returned my salutation, accepted my offer to share the very scanty food which I had purchased and so sat down before me on the ground to eat.

“As we ate we grew acquainted. I told him frankly enough of my misfortune, though not in detail. ‘I was,’ said I, ‘only the day before yesterday a rich man. To-day I am what you see, and my last piece of silver is gone.’ He looked at me gravely and said that there was One Who gave and Who took away. His Name be exalted. ‘These sheep, for instance,’ said he, ‘are the property of a man contemptible in every way, foolish, irascible, a bad master and (one would have thought) an unwise merchant. Yet he prospers while I, the shepherd, remain upon a hire too small to permit me to save. And so it has been for years!’

“‘I have not,’ added he a little bitterly, ‘the faculties for that sort of life which my master pursues. At any rate I am quite certain of this: that by any common judgment of men he is the inferior and I the lord. Yet here I am!... The world deals harshly by poor men.’ He looked at me to see if the words sank in.

“As he thus spoke (his sadness seemed to relieve my own with a sense of our common dependence) the sun now near the horizon warned us of prayer and I was glad indeed to see that this new chance companion was as much alive as I to the duties we owe our Maker. He fell upon his knees and bowed to the evening prayer as I did beside him, and for some moments, as we recited the sacred formula, all worldly thoughts passed from my mind and I think from his also. We rose at the same moment from this exercise, each filled, I felt, with brotherhood. I was the first to break the consecrated silence.

“I did so by asking him whether he had never thought, in the course of his long years as a shepherd, how money might be made by the stealing of his master’s sheep, or by some trick with them? Whether he had never had the opportunity to blackmail his master, or in some other way to increase his fortune? For it seemed intolerable to me that a man such as he described his employer to be, should be wealthy while he were poor. He shrugged his shoulders as though in despair and answered simply:

“‘In the distant past I often attempted such things; but invariably have I failed. Indeed, the master graziers of this part know me well for one who has attempted at their expense every kind of bold chance, and I would never have employment from them were it not for my skill in lambing and in every other part of the trade. As it is they watch me rigorously. Their spies are everywhere. I could not, I fear, make one dinar by any one of the methods you suggest. I have in my time tried them all. I have forged receipts; I have sold sheep which afterwards I entered as dead from accident; I have falsified the returns of the lambing; I have sometimes raised a sum of money upon the flock under pretence that it was my own. My only reward has been fine and imprisonment and cruel torture. But the truth is that I have not the faculties of the merchant. They are, I take it, granted to some and withheld from others. For my part I have despaired of their exercise and shall never turn to them again.’

“His words filled me at once with pity and with hope, and (since ingenuity is never long absent from men of my temper) a scheme suddenly appeared.

“‘Why should not we,’ I said, after I had gathered wood and lit a fire to meet the approaching darkness, ‘enter into partnership? I think I may say without boasting that I possess in a singular degree those faculties which you say you lack. God made me in every part for a merchant. I can conceal, distort, forestall, outdo, bully, terrify and even boldly snatch, far better than any other man I have come across. Only once in my life have I fallen into the weakness of trusting others and as you see I have paid bitterly for that weakness.’ So I spoke, not noticing that I was yet again committing the same error in suggesting partnership to a mere stranger. But in truth Allah had blinded me; purposing to make me taste misfortune to the full that I might the better adore His later beneficence.

“‘All these talents I have in abundance and more also,’ I continued, ‘for God has been very good to me. You, on the other hand, have what I lack; that is, a knowledge of the towns round about and of their markets; of the value of sheep; of the system which has been organized for the catching of ingenious men; and of how that system may be avoided. Between us, then, we have all the things needed for our success. Come, let us determine with the very next breaking of the light to try our fortunes together.’

“After I had thus spoken the shepherd looked at me long and anxiously over the fire, the reflection of which shone in his piercing eyes. I wondered whether he were wavering and to what conclusion he would come. At last he spoke, slowly enough.

“‘I am not willing,’ said he, ‘I am not willing ... but I will take the risk. The worst that can come to me I have already suffered. At the best’—and he pointed towards the vast flock of sheep now a mass of glimmering white as they lay in the darkness—‘at the best we should each acquire provision for many years.’

“‘Oh! fool!’ thought I, ‘provision for many years! Does he not know how money breeds?’ But in open speech I said, ‘Yes, we will divide the spoil and go our ways. I with my share and you with yours.’

“‘Precisely,’ he answered with a curious smile which, for the moment, intrigued me. ‘You with your share and I with mine.’

“As the night passed I entertained him with the details of my plan. Since it was I who had to do the work while he would have to command (from his knowledge of the trade), I proposed that he should be the master and I the man. To all this he nodded assent. He was also prepared to meet me in my suggestion that he should put on my fine clothes and I his rags, the better to carry out our parts. ‘This will,’ said I, ‘seem strange while you are driving the sheep, but as we approach the town and market to which you shall direct me, if there be one nearby, I will attempt to take over your task and under your direction I may at least complete it by bringing the flock to the place of sale. I will speak of you as the owner. My fine dress which you wear will carry out that deception and deceive all into thinking that it is an honest transaction. The sum upon which we shall agree with the purchaser shall be paid to you; and not until the whole transaction is over, and we well out of the gate, shall I ask for the division, which I take it should be in equal halves.’

“To all this also he agreed; only asking whether I would not like (as, after all, I had only just met him) to have the money paid to both?

“I urged him to keep to my plan. His receiving the money as master would seem natural and excite no surprise. We could divide in private at our leisure.

“To my surprise he made me a low bow at this; but I put it down to custom, and went on with my plan.

“For the sake of a rough calculation I asked him what sheep were fetching, and he said that in the neighbouring Ksar, which might be called a straggling market town or a large village, there was to be held, it so happened, the very next day a sheep market, where we must find ourselves shortly after sunrise. It was distant less than an hour across the uplands. The purchasers came from all parts, and as the bidding was likely to be brisk we might expect for the flock as a whole not less than 1,800 or even 2,000 pieces of gold. As he spoke I already felt that capital in my possession, or, at least, half of it, and I thought things would go hard with me if after our first successful transaction I could not carry on my partner to another and another, until at last I had manipulated him out of his share also.

“We discussed all further details through the night, rehearsed our parts, and had the whole perfect when the first glimmer of dawn showed in the East beyond the edges of the hills beneath a waning moon.

“We rose; the flock was gathered; our garments exchanged; and I could not but admire my companion, now that he was dressed in what seemed a manner so much more suitable to his carriage and features. He looked a very Master, a prosperous lord of men, and I congratulated him upon the effect, which, I assured him would allay all suspicion, since all would take him for a very great lord indeed.

“Again he smiled that intriguing smile and bowed too low. But I was a little nettled at his affecting to play the part thoroughly by addressing me in sharp tones and with the air of a superior. I, for my part, shivered in the dawn in the miserable rags which I had taken from him, and holding his staff awkwardly enough tramped on in my character of the servant.

“Soon, just as the sun rose, the dusty hedges and the cracked yellowish walls of the Ksar appeared in a hollow through which ran a muddy stream. From the enclosures within, rose the bleating of many sheep which had been driven to the same market, and we observed upon the folds of land beyond several flocks arriving in convergence upon the same place.

“My companion told me while we were still out of earshot that an early arrival would allow us to watch the movement of prices and, what was of more value to us, might enable us to get away before opportunity for pursuit should arise.

“He gave me my last instructions, recalling all that we had arranged in the night. ‘I, for my part,’ said he, as the first sheep of our great flock entered the narrow streets, ‘shall fall behind you and take my way to the Pavement outside the Mosque reserved for the principal merchants, and there with all due dignity and honour await your report, while you go forward to the market place beyond the Mosque: when you have got a purchaser, come back and find me. For such is here the custom. It is the servant who negotiates, the master who confirms. The servant leads the purchaser to his superior, and that superior takes the purchase money. Do you, for your part, cast around until you hear the conversation of the bidders and see that you sell at a price not less than 2,000 pieces of gold.’ He then gave the number of our flock all told, which he made me repeat to a single point in ewes and in lambs. When he had said this he fell behind me and went up a street which led to the Mosque; while I, in some doubt of my capacity, but putting what bold face I could upon the matter, went straight before me along the broad way toward the market beyond. There I drove all the flock into a great pen, of which certain were reserved for the vendors in that mart.

“The market soon filled with buyers. They came in little groups, prodding the sheep, feeling the wool and sometimes looking into their mouths; and the flock which I had the honour of commanding was the most admired of all. I was asked by several if I would not sell singly; but estimating the eagerness of the buyers I shook my head and said I could not sell for less than a reserve sum of two thousand pieces of gold, nor could I break the flock. I added that it was a pity to do so as it was a pedigree flock, every single animal being descended from the famous ram which had spoken in a human voice to the Holy Hassan three hundred years ago by order of the Most High. I admitted that this origin made little difference to the mutton, but I pointed out its extraordinary effect upon the wool.

“With that the bidding began and I noticed with great pleasure one tall, dark, very thin man among the rest, slow of gesture, fixed of eye, who never took his looks from my face and who, just after each last bid, would raise it by fifty pieces of gold. He was not to be beaten. One competitor after another dropped out. At last when the magnificent sum of 2,832 pieces of gold had been bid by the mysterious stranger I clapped my hands together as the signal and used the formula ‘Heaven has decided.’ The stranger approached me, drawing from his girdle a reed and a small horn of ink. I thought we were about to sign the transfer—it seemed to me an odd formality, seeing that he had but to drive the beasts away and leave me the bag of gold. I was undeceived. He presented me no charter of transfer, no deed, but a strange piece of writing such as I had not seen before and asked me for its counterpart. I was startled and a little confused. ‘What counterpart?’ said I.

“‘Do you mean,’ said he in clear tones, so that the curious bystanders should overhear, ‘that you have no permit?’

“At this the audience tittered, and others, scenting amusement, crowded round to gaze and follow.

“‘Have you no permit?’ he repeated severely.

“I felt myself growing hot and confused under the laughter which followed; and even alarmed when I heard one buyer say contemptuously to his neighbour, ‘They’ve caught another of ’em!’

“I confessed that I had never even heard of such an instrument.

“‘Follow me,’ said the stranger grimly, and whether from curiosity or from a conviction growing in me that he had authority, I followed humbly enough, leaving my large flock bleating in its pen.

“The stranger (for he now showed that he had upon him the keys of the market) locked the gate of the pen, appointed (another proof of his authority) a slave to stand by and see that no one interfered with the property I had transferred to him, and motioned to others to fall in behind us. He then led me away, and I was more concerned than ever to notice the strange smiles of those who saw the little procession which we made, he going first with his great staff, I treading behind.

“He led me to where the Sheiks of the neighbourhood, the principal sheep owners and magistrates, sat in solemnity before the Mosque; an awe-inspiring company. Grand and splendid among them, in their very centre and clearly the most revered of them all, I perceived my late companion the shepherd, all dressed up in my own fine clothes, but having now added ornaments reserved for him, and looking for all the world like the king of the place.

“At our approach he turned an indignant glance upon me, rose to his feet, and addressing the stranger who had captured me, cried in a terrible voice:

“‘Officer! Do you bring me yet another of these evildoers? Whose sheep had he driven off? And is it a case of a forged permit or what?’

“I already saw how the land lay, and I quailed to think what was before me. The owners—I rightly guessed—had suffered from sheep stealing; had established permits, signed by them, in order to check fraudulent sales; had plotted to catch the thief culprits, and this perfidious man had disguised himself as a servant in order to catch such, and had caught me. The officer who had arrested me spoke:

“‘My lord,’ he said, ‘we have caught this ruffian’—pointing to me—‘selling your sheep without any permit at all! He must have driven them through the night. By the law which your Council proclaimed last year, just after the Fast, his punishment lies in your hands. The owner has the determination of it.’

“To my astonishment and horror my former companion looked on me with a dreadful face of scorn and said: ‘Tell me all, that I may apportion the punishment due to him. I had had him in my employ for but a short time. I mistrusted him from the first. Tell me all!’

“‘I have so found him selling your lordship’s sheep. They fetched nearly 3,000 pieces of gold,’ answered the officer grimly. ‘He shall make an excellent example for, my lord, he is the first whom we have caught in this market trying to sell without a permit. There can be no doubt (I have witnesses to it) that he proposed to take the purchase money and (perhaps with some accomplice whom I have not traced) to fly.’

“On hearing this my former companion, clenching his hands and showing as intense a passion as his dignity would allow—a magnificent figure in those clothes of his (my clothes)—cried, ‘What? Is it possible that one whom I have nourished, tended and befriended should be guilty of so abominable a crime? How wise we were to make the regulation! How excellent and zealous are you in your office thus to have found the first culprit who attempted theft in this place! How admirable that he should be brought to justice before he could consummate his crime! How marked is the work of Providence’—here he lifted his eyes to heaven—‘which has given him up to us for an example! Come, let us cut off his head with a blunt saw.’

“The officer who had thus traitorously caught me bowed low and said, ‘Hearing and obedience! But if my lord will take council I would speak.’

“‘What is it you would say?’ said my companion, who resumed his seat but slowly and seemed displeased at the interruption.

“‘My lord,’ said the official, ‘I suggest that if you cut off his miserable head with a blunt saw, though doubtless it would have a good effect for the moment and strike terror into the hearts of those here who see it, so that never more shall sheep be stolen from this market, nor ever more shall we suffer as we have suffered in the past, yet it would be of slighter effect than what I shall propose. For to hear of a man’s execution is one thing, but to hear his own relation of his sufferings is another. I propose therefore that he shall be beaten at great length but not to the point of death; on the approaching of that consummation let him be released to crawl away and tell his story throughout our countries to whoever will listen. Such an example would be of far more service to the owners, my lord, than his death would be, and I promise that he shall be beaten in the most expert manner to the advantage of all posterity.’

“Even as he advised so was it done. I was given the bastinado without mercy until I thought I should have expired, and then under every circumstance of ignominy I was turned loose with a week’s provision of coarse meal into that deserted country, to spread terror among the servants of the wealthy owners and by my example to deter them from ever attempting to play tricks with their masters’ goods.

“I, who from my youth have abhorred the ill use of servants, I who had founded once so great a fortune and proved so kind a master to hosts of dependents, I in my ingenuousness and simple heart could not have believed that such trickery existed in the world! I had been wholly duped!

“As I limped from village to village, begging my bread, I heard the whole story and it exactly confirmed the conclusion I had reached when I first stood trembling before the Sheiks at the Mosque.

“The shepherd in his poor clothes was the richest sheep owner in the country. He and his fellow lords had for some years past suffered from surreptitious sales, they had appointed officers to watch the markets and even so had not always been able to recover the purchase money from their agents. They had therefore—as I guessed—instituted a system of Permits so that no man could sell in the market without their signed licences and so that each man so selling could be detected as a thief by the officers of the markets. But how should I, a poor stranger from over-sea, know anything of this? The blackness of the treason wounded me even more than the sufferings of my bastinado. I almost lost my faith in man; by the Everlasting Mercy I did not lose my faith in Heaven!... Nothing, my boys,” said the old man, his voice trembling, as he remembered this terrible passage of the past, “nothing but Religion supported me during the fearful days that followed. I think I can say with humility that one less founded in a firm reliance upon his Maker would have grown embittered. I might have turned into one of those useless people who, as the result of misfortune, become railers, nourishing a perpetual quarrel against mankind. But our Holy Religion stood me in good stead, and as my wounds healed and as my wanderings led me further from the scene of my torture I recovered so much of my spirits as once more to attempt what might have seemed impossible; I faced the world again. It would seem that those for whom Heaven has high designs, those for whom, like myself, it intends the highest positions among men, must in the divine scheme pass first through the fire and the ordeal. Happy the men who (like myself) profit by such visitations and retain unclouded their childlike trust in God.”

“Amen,” murmured the eldest of the nephews.

“What was that you said?” cried Mahmoud sharply?

“I said ‘Amen,’ Uncle,” answered the lad in humble tones. His uncle scanned him narrowly.

“Well,” he muttered, “I suppose you are too much of a fool to have meant it ill....”

At this the strident nasals of the Muezzin suddenly shrieked from the neighbouring minaret and the young lads with unaccustomed rapidity vacated the great merchant’s apartment.