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Updated: June 30, 2025
Presently, as she sat at home, lamenting over her son, there came in to her an old woman, known as the mother of Ahmed Kemakim the arch-thief, a knave who would bore through the stoutest wall and scale the highest and steal the very kohl from the eye.
The thing lived; her deed was the woman; there was no separating them: witness it in love murdered. O that woman! She has murdered love. She has blotted love completely out. She is the arch-thief and assassin of mankind the female Apollyon.
At the same time, he was careful to maintain his authority and to exact the respect due to his position. He knew well that among those lawless spirits he who would be obeyed must be feared. On one occasion he administered a public rebuke to the arch-thief, Keppoch, who had found time for another raid on the Mackintoshes.
Asked the lady, "And what feat wilt thou do?" Quoth the old woman, "I have a son called Ahmad Kamakim, the arch-thief, who lieth chained in jail and on his bilboes is written, 'Appointed to remain till death'; so do thou don thy richest clothes and trick thee out with thy finest jewels and present thyself to thy husband with an open face and smiling mien; and when he seeketh of thee what men seek of women, put him off and baulk him of his will and say, 'By Allah, 'tis a strange thing!
He lay with her that night and on the morrow, after he had made his ablutions and prayed the morning prayers, he repaired to the prison and said to Ahmed Kemakim, 'Harkye, O arch-thief, dost thou repent of thy ill deeds? 'I do indeed repent and turn to God, answered he, 'and say with heart and tongue, "I ask pardon of Allah." So he carried him, still chained, to the Divan and kissed the earth before the Khalif, who said to him, 'O Amir Khalid, what seekest thou? Then he brought forward Ahmed Kemakim, shuffling in his fetters, and the Khalif said to him, 'O Kemakim, art thou yet alive? 'O Commander of the Faithful, answered he, 'the wretched are long-lived. Then said the Khalif to the Amir, 'Why have thou brought him hither? And he replied, 'O Commander of the Faithful, he hath a poor, desolate mother, who hath none but him, and she hath had recourse to thy slave, imploring him to intercede with thee to set him free and make him Captain of the Watch as before; for he repenteth of his evil courses. Quoth the Khalif to Ahmed, 'Dost thou repent of thy sins? 'I do indeed repent to God, O Commander of the Faithful, answered he; whereupon the Khalif called for the blacksmith and made him strike off his irons on the bench of the washer of the dead.
What hath befallen him? So Khatoun told her the whole story, and she said, 'What wouldst thou say of him who should find means to save thy son? 'And what wilt thou do? asked the lady. Quoth the old woman, 'I have a son called Ahmed Kemakim the arch-thief, who lies chained in prison, and on his fetters is written, "Appointed to remain till death."
I am sorry for it too, as to thy part; for two reasons one, that I think thy motive for thy curiosity was fear of consciousness: whereas that of the arch-thief was vanity, intolerable vanity: and he was therefore justly sent away with a blush upon his cheeks to heaven, and could not brag the other, that I am afraid, if she dislikes thee, she dislikes me: for are we not birds of a feather?
Clayton had taken the first train for Chicago; but not before Podmore had third-degreed him into abject fear. No, Clayton had had no hand in it; that was certain, and with that once established, the identity of the arch-thief remained a mystery which baffled investigation especially when the situation called for the utmost circumspection.
He asked, "And who was thy father's murderer?" whereto Aslan answered, "Ahmad Kamakim the arch-thief."
So arch-thief Ahmad Kamakin waited till midnight, when Canopus shone bright, and all creatures to sleep were dight whilst the Creator veiled them with the veil of night.
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