"How can I?" cried he, in a tone of perplexity; "how is it possible that you can pass these doors and walls, even were you as free as I am at this moment?"
"Leave that to me," said I; "do you accept the offer?"
"I will consider of the matter, and will be here at this time to-morrow, to give you a final answer."
"May Alla send you kind thoughts to the distressed! we shall look for your decision with impatience."
The next evening he came at the same time, and seated himself as before. "What would you have me do, Meer Sahib?" he asked; "I am ready to obey your commands if they are practicable. First, however, I must be secure of the money you have mentioned; I must receive it before I peril my situation, and, more than that, my life in your behalf."
"Listen then, Meer Sahib," said I; "I trust you,—you are a Syud and I also am one; you dare not deceive me, and incur the wrath of Alla."
"I will not, by the Prophet, whose descendant I am," said he; "were the Koran in my hands this moment, I would swear upon it."
"No, no," said I, "do not swear; the word of an honest man is far more binding than an oath. I believe that you are true, and therefore it is that I trust you. First, then, as regards the money; do you remember two old tombs, one of them much broken, which stand near the river's brink over the the north side of the city, about a cannon-shot from the wall?"
"I do, perfectly."