Then the King’s envoys searched through all the tents, no man hindering them, so persuaded were the good merchants that none of their company had defrauded any man. As they searched, behold, they found hidden in one of the tents, where Vikramâditja had concealed them, the stuffs bearing his marks, so and so, even as he had testified before the King.
When the merchants saw this they cried, saying, “Surely some evil demon hath done this thing, for in our company is none who ever took any man’s goods;” and they all began to weep with one accord.
The King’s envoys, however, said, “Weeping will bring you no help; we must do according to the words of our all-powerful king.” And they called on the two hundred fighting-men to put the whole company of merchants to the edge of the sword.
When the commotion was at the highest—the merchants entreating mercy and protesting their innocence, and the envoys declaring the urgency of the King’s decree, and the fighting-men sharpening their swords—there stood forward young Vikramâditja, and spoke, saying, “Nay, let not so many men be put to death. Leave them their lives if they give me in exchange the boy Schalû, whom they have in their company.”
Then the merchants said to Schalû, “Already hast thou once saved our lives; go now with this man, and save them for us even this second time.”
And Schalû made answer, “To have saved the lives of five hundred men twice over, shall it not bring me good fortune?” So he went with Vikramâditja, and the merchants loaded him with rich merchandize out of gratitude, for his reward.
When Vikramâditja came home, bringing the boy with him, his mother inquired of him, saying, “Vikramâditja, beloved son, where hast thou been, and whence hast thou the child which thou hast brought?”
And Vikramâditja answered, “Beloved mother, when thou wast on thy way hither fleeing from before the face of the Schimnus, did not one of thy maidens leave a new-born infant in a wolves’ den?”
And his mother answered, “Even so did one of my maidens, and the child would now be about this age.” So they took Schalû to them, and he was unto Udsessküleng-Chatun as a son, but unto Vikramâditja as a brother; and he went with him whithersoever he went.
One day Vikramâditja came to his mother, and said to her, “Beloved mother! Live on here in tranquillity, while I, in company with Schalû, will go to the capital where my father, the immortal Gandharva, reigned, and see what is the fate of our people, and how I may recover the inheritance.”