“‘No, my dear Mahmoud’ (again the use of my name disturbed me), ‘whatever else we are let us not be hypocrites. Let us frankly acknowledge our limitations. You, as I am now convinced, know how to sell and to buy, and have all the qualities for discovering the dearest and the cheapest markets. Much as I have desired to attain to the same faculties I have failed, and at my age (which, though it is not the 110 years reported, is at any rate well over sixty) it is too late to change. I will therefore make you what is called, I believe, in your world, an offer.’
“(With what relief did those words fall on my ears! I did not realize for the moment how greatly it was to his advantage to have begun by frightening your unhappy uncle and what an opportunity this had given him for negotiations!)
“‘I will make you a proposition. Think carefully over it, and at the end of a reasonable time give me your decision. I offer you two alternatives. The one is that you should continue your trade subject to the supervision of my agents, and that when you have reached a total of 1,000 pieces of gold you shall be impaled and the money confiscated. The other is that you shall continue to use your evident talents for the furtherance of this trade, but that I shall be regarded as a sleeping partner in the same, with half the takings. The choice lies with you.... Pray, pray take your time. Undue haste has spoilt many an excellent business contract, and I would not have you ruin your chances. Do not,’ he continued, repressing my evident anxiety to accept his terms, ‘do not let your judgment be prejudiced by any feeling of obligation. Think the alternatives over carefully and then let me know your conclusion. Take your time.’
“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 for ever. 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.