“And, alas, so they had! or at least as many as the King of that region could command....
“For this was the explanation....”
Here the old man’s eyes grew dim with tears, his voice faltered, and in spite of his present riches he broke down at the recollection of his past ill-fortune.
“Oh, my dear nephews,” he said in broken accents, “hardly will you believe the magnitude of my misfortune! For it turned out, as I eagerly questioned the people of the place, that a war having broken out against their King on account of the Date Prohibition of which I have told you, that ruthless monarch had ordered them to collect as best they might so many thousands of camels to be present within the walls by noon of that day, or suffer massacre. If the full tale were not present every man, woman, and child would be killed. For he had been suddenly alarmed by this declaration of war and caught with an insufficient provision of sumpter beasts. His Emirs had advised him that his salvation lay in seizing without payment every beast for leagues around.
“In proportion as my soul sank so did the hearts of the townsmen rise, to see the number gradually fulfilled. By noon all was well for them—but very ill for me! The officers of the king arrived, the beasts were counted and set apart, with not an ounce of copper to pay for any one of them! All seized! And my poor herd, alone and in that vast multitude, suffered the fate of all the rest, and, what was worse, every one of my slaves—all were taken off to serve as drivers.
“There in a far land, alone, I stood, with not a gold piece left in my pouch and not a head of cattle to my name; once more quite destitute.
“I spent the remainder of that day debating whether to hang myself on a beam or throw myself from a minaret. The arguments in favour of either course were so evenly balanced that the sun set before I could decide between them, and even at sunset there appeared, through the Mercy of Allah, a new relief.”
“There did?” said the second of the nephews eagerly, but before his uncle could reply the intolerable noise of the Muezzin was heard and the boys, rising at the signal, bowed low to their uncle and were gone.