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 could I make of yours? What do I want? I am but your companion. Moreover, I have some other dangerous business.

1035. "Now, of this countless treasure I have found here, take what you each wish; I shall be a claimant against none. One thing I entreat: grant my request, one not to be mistrusted; I have a certain matter to be kept hidden within you.

1036. "Till the time comes, speak not of me as if I were not your master. Say, 'He is our chief,' call me not knight. I will clothe myself as a merchant, I will begin chaffering; keep the secret, by the brotherhood between us."

1037. This thing very greatly rejoiced the caravan; they came and saluted him, saying: "It is our hope—the very request we should have made to you, you yourself have made to us—that we may serve him whose face we acknowledge as the face of the sun."

1038. Thence they departed and travelled on, they wasted no time; they met fair weather, they sailed ever pleasantly; they delighted in Avt'handil, they sang his praises; they presented him with a pearl of the tint of the knight's teeth.



1039. Avt'handil crossed the sea; with stately form went he. They saw a city engirt by a thicket of garden, with wondrous kinds of flowers of many and many a hue. In