"As it was she lost three out of her nine lives, and unluckily came to land on the premises of a tanner where she was set upon by six dogs who tore her hair out and bit her tail, and altogether so misused her that she came to look more like a bit of ill-used foot-rug than a respectable Maltese cat.
"At last, with her heart full of rage and her stomach full of water, she reached home to find the poor cobbler in the utmost grief for the loss of his daughter.
"By and by he resigned himself to his fate, and seeing well that no common person had stolen the maiden, he smoked the more abundantly, and like a true believer took comfort in that verse of the Koran which says, 'All things that are are well; but some, saith the Prophet, are disagreeable.'
"Meanwhile poor Mustapha became nearly crazed with grief. He roamed the streets all day, and at evening returned to the cobbler's in the vain hope of hearing some news of Lelie.
"On one of these occasions he was so unlucky as to stumble over Yussef who gave him a fierce scratch, and fled from his wrath to devise new plans of mischief, for although Lelie was gone, she was lost to herself as well as to Mustapha, and the cat never had ceased to hate him as the cause of all her troubles.
"Yussef therefore resolved to rid herself of his presence, and she set about it after her own wicked fashion.
"Some two or three nights later Mustapha was wandering sadly in the gardens of the Caliph when he heard a voice from the trees above him saying,
"'Come to-night to the tomb of the Caliphs, under the cedars, on the road to Damascus, and thou shalt hear news of thy love.'