lost leg of the table. I found the table and
kept this for evidence. It is the same with most of the treasures Musa has
shown you. It was I who won them and captured the cities in which they
were found. Ask any of these soldiers if I speak the truth or not."

These words were ruinous to Musa. The table had revenged its finder. If
Musa had lied in this case, he had lied in all. So held the angry caliph,
who turned upon him with bitter abuse, calling him thief and liar, and
swearing by Allah that he would crucify him. In the end he ordered the old
man, fourscore years of age, corpulent and asthmatic, to be exposed to the
fierce sun of Syria for a whole summer's day, and bade his brother Omar to
see that the cruel sentence was executed.

Until high noon had passed the old warrior stood under the scorching solar
rays, his blood at length seeming to boil in his veins, while he sank
suffocated to the earth. Death would soon have ended his suffering had not
Omar, declaring "that he had never passed a worse day in his life,"
prevailed upon the caliph to abridge his punishment.

Bent upon his utter ruin, the vindictive Soliman laid upon him the
enormous fine of four million and thirty thousand dinars, equal to about
ten million dollars. His sons were left in power in Spain that they might
aid him in paying the fine. Great as the sum was, Musa, by giving up his
own fortune, by the aid of his sons in Africa and Spain, and by assistance
from his friends, succeeded in obtaining it. But even this did not satisfy
the caliph, who now banished him to his birthplace, that his early friends
might see and despise him in his ruin. He even determined to destroy his
sons, that the whole family might be rooted out and none be left in whose
veins the blood of Musa ran.

The ablest of these sons, Abdul-Aziz, had been left in chief command over
Spain. Thither the caliph sent orders for his death. Much as the young
ruler was esteemed, wisely as he had ruled, no one thought of questioning
an order of the Commander of the Faithful, the mighty autocrat of the
great Arabian empire, and the innocent Abdul was assassinated by some who
had been among his chief friends. His head was then cut off, embalmed, and
sent to Soliman, before whom it was laid, enclosed in a casket of precious
wood.

Sending for Musa, the vindictive caliph had the casket opened in his
presence, saying, as the death-like features appeared, "Do you know whose
head that is?"

Th