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Well, he was getting there, even though he had taken the hard way. On the road near Sakkarah a car was waiting, and in it was Kemel Moustafa. The cameleer made the mounts kneel. Rick and Hassan got off, and the man with the camels hurried away without a word. The two walked up to the car. "Thank you for rescuing us," Rick said politely. Moustafa had not spoken.
So he asked the watchman what had happened and he told him what has passed in the night and what had been said to the cameleer, whereupon the merchant bade him fetch the man and asked him, "Whither didst thou carry the stuffs this morning?" Answered the driver, "To such a landing-place, and I stowed them on board such a vessel."
The thief had laid his cloak over them; so the merchant took the cloak as well as the bales and delivered them to the camel- driver, who laid them on his camel; after which he locked the magazine and went away with the cameleer. The merchant laughed and, giving him back his cloak, let him go unhindered; whereupon both went their ways. And they tell a tale of
Quoth Ala al-Din, "Such is Allah's luck; if any share of it be mine, no harm shall hap to me." Now when he had ended his verses, he said, "O chief of the caravan, it is not I who am minded to travel, but this my son." Quoth the cameleer, "Allah save him for thee."
"Fetch me the cameleer who carried the goods," said the merchant; so he fetched him and the merchant said to him, "Whither didst thou carry the bales of goods from the ship?" "To such a Khan," answered he; and the merchant rejoined, "Come thither with me and show it to me."
The camel was such a vision of homely awkwardness that Rick had to laugh. The cameleer led the beast to where a party of tourists, obviously American, waited. The boys watched as the animal came to a halt. The driver bowed to the party. Then, taking a thin stick, he tapped the camel on bony knees that were wrapped in worn burlap. Instantly the camel let out a heartrending groan.
The Cameleer sat up and, considering it straitly, knew it for the glint of spear heads and the steel of Badawi weapons and swords. And lo and behold! this was a troop of wild Arabs under a chief called Ajlan Abu Naib, Shaykh of the Arabs, and when they neared the camp and saw the bales and baggage, they said one to another, "O night of loot!"
Then they left Damascus and journeyed on till they came to Aleppo, where Mahmud made a second entertainment and sent to invite Ala al-Din; but he consulted the Chief Cameleer who again forbade him. Then they marched from Aleppo and fared on, till there remained between them and Baghdad only a single stage.
So he related to them all that had happened to him with Sultan Zau al-Makan; how he had been carried from the Holy City, at the time when he was sick, till they made Damascus and he had been thrown into the hospital; how also the Jerusalem folk had paid the cameleer money to transport the stranger to Damascus, and he had taken it and fled after casting his charge upon the midden by the side of the ash-heap of the Hammam.
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