" As she spoke, there came a loud
knocking at the door; so she went and opened, and lo, it was my
friend whom I had thrown down on the bridge, with his head bound
up, the blood running down upon his clothes and without his
horse. "O so and so," said she, "what hath befallen thee?"
Quoth he, "I made prize of the man [whom the Khalif seeks] and he
escaped from me." And told her the whole story. So she brought
out tinder and applying it to his head, bound it up with a piece
of rag; after which she spread him a bed and he lay sick. Then
she came up to me and said, "Methinks thou art the man in
question?" "I am," answered I, and she said, "Fear not: no harm
shall befall thee," and redoubled in kindness to me.
I abode with her three days, at the end of which time she said to
me, "I am in fear for thee, lest yonder man happen upon thee and
betray thee to what thou dreadest; so save thyself by flight." I
besought her to let me tarry till nightfall, and she said, "There
is no harm in that." So, when the night came, I put on my
woman's attire and taking leave of her, betook me to the house of
a freed woman, who had once been mine. When she saw me, she wept
and made a show of affliction and praised God the Most High for
my safety.
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