“That depends on what is to follow. I’ll tell you presently. Go on!”
“I travel, as you have been told, in the gastronomical interests of various sovereigns. One of them, whose name I choose to withhold, has sent me to this country with a mission so truly extraordinary that I dread to impart it to you.”
“Fear not, sir. I flatter myself I shall understand you.”
“The king, whose envoy I am, has a daughter as fanciful as she is beautiful, and he is the slave of her lightest caprice. She has read in some writer of this country that the Saracens owe the clearness of their complexion to a peculiar ointment. I am really afraid to tell you of what it is composed.”
“Don’t be afraid of anything with me, sir.”
“Well, then, they say that one must have, to make it properly, a human head——”
“Ah?” said Ali, pushing back his chair; “you are terribly plain to understand,—rest assured of that!”
“They assert that for this purpose the heads of the inhabitants of these parts are superior to all others. I have unluckily promised to procure one, and if I fail to keep my word, my own head, for lack of better, will have to serve the princess’s turn. They persuaded me that to ensure the preservation of the beauty of young girls was an act of philanthropy, and I foolishly committed myself to the undertaking. I offer with all my heart one-half of the sum promised me to any one who will assist me out of my scrape.”
“And how much have you been promised?” said Ali, bringing his chair to the table again.
“A hundred ounces. Do you know any respectable man of business who will undertake to supply such an article as I have named?”