Here they found the bandits
dispersed about the valley, having divided the treasure between
them; but there was yet some of it left. So they fell upon them
and surrounded them on all sides, nor was it long before they
made prize of them all, to the number of near three hundred
horsemen, banded together of the scourings of the Arabs. They
bound them all, and taking what they could find of the merchant's
goods, returned to Baghdad, where the two Kings sat down upon one
throne and passing the prisoners in review before them,
questioned them of their condition and their chiefs. So they
pointed out to them three men and said, "These are our only
chiefs, and it was they who gathered us together from all parts
and countries." The Kings bade lay on these three and set the
rest free, after taking from them all the goods in their
possession and giving them to the merchant, who examined them and
found that a fourth of his stock was missing. The two Kings
engaged to make good his loss, whereupon he pulled out two
letters, one in the handwriting of Sherkan and the other in that
of Nuzhet ez Zeman; for this was the very merchant who had bought
Nuzhet ez Zeman of the Bedouin, as hath been before set forth.
Kanmakan examined the letters and recognized the handwriting of
his uncle Sherkan and his aunt Nuzhet ez Zeman; then (for that he
knew the latter's history) he went in to her with that which she
had written and told her the merchant's story.
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