at Said was
surrounded by five or six who sought to disarm or unseat him, they
dashed up, chased away the conspirators, and threatened the men who had
acted so treacherously with dismissal from the course.

For more than four months, Said had excited the astonishment of Bagdad
by his prowess, when one evening, on returning home from the
tournament, he heard some voices which seemed familiar to him. Before
him walked four men at a slow pace, apparently discussing some subject
together. As Said approached nearer, he discovered that they were
talking in the dialect which the men in Selim's tribe had used in the
desert, and suspected that they were planning some robbery. His first
thought was to draw back from these men; but when he reflected that he
might be the means of preventing some great wrong, he stole up still
nearer to listen to what they were saying.

"The gate keeper expressly said it was the street to the right of the
bazar," said one of the men; "he will certainly pass through it
to-night, in company with the grand vizier."

"Good!" added another. "I am not afraid of the grand vizier; he is old,
and not much of a hero; but the caliph wields a good sword, and I
wouldn't trust him; there would be ten or twelve of the body-guard
stealing after him."

"Not a soul!" responded a third. "Whenever he has been seen and
recognized at night, he was always unattended except by the vizier or
the head chamberlain. He will be ours to-night; but no harm must be
done him."

"I think," said the first speaker, "that the best plan would be to
throw a noose over his head; we may not kill him, for it would be but a
small ransom that they would pay for his body, and, more than that, we
shouldn't be sure of receiving it."

"An hour before midnight, then!" exclaimed they, and separated, one
going this way, another that.

Said was not a little horrified at this scheme. He resolved to hasten
at once to the caliph's palace and warn him of the threatened danger.
But after running through several streets, he remembered the caution
that the fairy had given him--that the caliph had received a bad report
about him. He reflected that his warning might be laughed at, or
regarded as an attempt on his part to ingratiate himself with the
Caliph of Bagdad; and so he concluded that it would be best to depend
on his good sword, and rescue the caliph from the hands of the robbers
himself.

So he did not return to Kalum-Bek's house, but sat d