The Argosy, March 27, 1920 — page 42: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

a a a ee 192 THE ARGOSY. small man with watery blue eyes and a tagged beard. He looked about him for help, but the crowd, although they all suf- fered from the exactions of the viceroy, were not unwilling to see some one else suffer. Najob Azoura put his rugs in a neat pile and turned them one at a time as aman might turn the leaves of a book. “Rubbish!” exclaimed Ali Hassan as the rugs fell one by one. “ Made of filth and colored with mud! Show me thy best!” . “hey are my best,” pleaded Najob Azoura. “ My wares are for poor men.” The mounted man reached out and touched the merchant with his staff. “Not so fast,’ he said, ‘‘ there was one thou didst not show me.” The merchant spread out his hands and said: ‘‘ That one I have not showed thee because it is sold.” ‘“ Show it to me,” said the implacable Ali. Najob Azoura shrugged his stooped shoulders; took a bit of sacking from his rugs; turned them up, and showed the one on the very bottom. * Spread it out to the full,’ said his tor- mentor. ‘Ah, but the sun,” whined his victim, ‘“ the sun will fade it. Such are for indoors, and thou knowest, wise one, that one hairs- breadth change in the color will ruin all.” The staff cut the air, and fell upon the dusty shoulders of the merchant. ‘Do as I say, or there will be no more sunlight for thee!” Najob Azoura wept a few tears, spread the rug out to the full, and squatted on his heels beside it. “ Where didst thou get this rug?” said Ali Hassan. ‘And why has no one robbed thee of it?” Najob Azoura lifted his head to say: “ It is the true Bokhara; the blue is the right Afghanistan blue; there are full four hun- dred knots to the inch.” Ali Hassan looked long upon the shim- mering fabric before him. “And it is sold?” “Aye,” said Najob, ““Then shalt thou unsell it. Find the buyer and give him back his price.’ The merchant looked piteously about among the crowd. ‘He is not here, excellency,” he said. The crowd raised a hoot of laughter at the way in which the merchant had been caught. “Nor is he anywhere, old fool!” said Ali.‘ Five minutes will I give thee to find him, for none can say that I am not just. Then if I find that thou hast lied to me, will I have thy feet whipped.” Najob Azoura raised his voicg in a long wail. , “Allah!” he cried, “ Thou hast forgot- ten me!”’ A tall figure stepped from the crowd and bowed low to Ali Hassan. ‘T am the buyer,” he said, ‘1 did but now chaffer with this man for his rug, and I paid him a part of the purchase price.” “Only a tenth!” cried the rug merchant, springiny ‘9 his feet. “It was but a tenth! And ! shall give him but what he gave me.” * Beware, young man,” said Ali, ‘“ how thou dealest with me, I am not a coast dweller whe lives by laws and courts and decrees. No man hath lied to me with impurity.” ‘Nor do I lie now,” said the young man, looking fearlessly at Ali. ‘ What I have said is truth,” . “Tt maketh little difference to me,” said the viceroy, shrugging his shoulders, “ thou hast saved him from a beating. Pay him, Najob Azoura.” The rug merchant opened his pouch and counted out two gold pieces. ‘Two pounds in English gold,” he said. “ One-twentieth of the purchase price.” “ One-tenth, dog!” cried Ali Hassan. “Why wilt thou lie? Therefore thy rug is worth but twenty pounds in English gold. I will give thee five for it, and it is only the favor of Allah that giveth thee that,” Najob Azoura wailed avain, ‘“Trorty pounds in good English gold it cost me at Constantinople,” he wept. “Thou wilt ruin me!” * Ruin thee, thou gold-stuffed coast dweller!” scoffed his opponent. “It is a favor to take some of thy wealth before the Bedouin do. Come to the coffee-house of Mustufa, amd thou shalt have thy gold there. Batuta, take the rug.” Commiclbooks Comm