Page:The Celebrated Romance of the Stealing of the Mare.djvu/43

 'The black night fell on the world, and lo, in its trail the prowler.'"

And musing thus he passed beyond the farthest campfires,

Till lo, a spreading tree at his hand with low-set branches.

And Abu Zeyd rejoiced and entered within its borders,

"And here," said he, "will I rest, and sit me down till the midnight,

Even till the break of dawn when the camp shall be unguarded,

And I in my steps may turn unseen and all things accomplish,

Making prize of the mare, and so to my own people."

Said the Narrator:

And when Abu Zeyd had sat him down beneath the tree, behold him in a great anguish and trepidation and sorrow. And to him presently waiting thus there came a form approaching through the darkness, and he was astonished, and he said to himself, "What can this thing be? Climb rather, thou, O Abu Zeyd, into this tree, so that thou be hidden and learn that which shall come about." And he climbed into the tree's branches like unto a raging leopard and watched narrowly the coming of the man, who stopped beneath the tree. And the comer was Sahel ibn Aaf; and Sahel waited looking ever to the right and to the left, and so till a third of the night was over. But at the last there came to him a lady, an exceedingly fair woman, and her name was