39
sergeant, ‘that all night long I have been amusing myself with watching builders at work, and when it was day, I saw a palace ready built, whose like is not in the world. So I asked about it and was told that Jouder had come back with great wealth and slaves and servants and that he had freed his brothers from prison and built this palace, wherein he is as a Sultan. Quoth the king, ‘Go, look in the prison.’ So they went thither and finding Salim and Selim gone, returned and told the king, who said, ‘It is plain now who is the robber; he who took Salim and Selim out of prison it is who hath stolen my treasures.’ ‘O my lord,’ said the Vizier, ‘and who is he?’ ‘Their brother Jouder,’ replied the king, ‘and he hath taken the two pairs of saddle-bags; but, O Vizier, do thou send him an Amir with fifty men to seal up his goods and lay hands on him and his brothers and bring them to me, that I may hang them.’ And he was sore enraged and said, ‘Quick, fetch them to me, that I may put them to death.’
But the Vizier said to him, ‘Be thou clement, for God is clement and hasteth not to punish His servants, when they transgress against Him. Moreover, he who can build a palace in one night, as these say, none in the world can vie with him; and I fear lest the Amir catch a mischief of Jouder. Have patience, therefore, whilst I devise for thee some means of getting at the truth of the case, and so shalt thou come to thy desire, O King of the age.’ Quoth the king, ‘Counsel me how I shall do, O Vizier.’ And the Vizier said, ‘Send him an Amir, to bid him to an entertainment, and I will make much of him for thee and make a show of affection for him and ask him of his estate; after which we will see. If we find him stout of heart, we will use craft with him, and if weak, then do thou seize him and do with him thy will.’ The King agreed to this and despatched one of his Amirs, by name Othman, to invite Jouder and say to him, ‘The King bids thee to an enter-
