went up and shook the merchant gently by the shoulder. 'Who are you?'
asked he--'and what are you doing here--are you ill?'

'Ill?' said the merchant in a hollow voice, 'yes; ill with a sickness
for which there is no medicine.'

'Oh, nonsense!' cried Kooshy Ram. 'Come along with me, I know a
medicine that will cure you, I think.' So the young man seized the
merchant by the arm, and hoisting him to his feet, dragged him to his
own lodging; where he first of all gave him a large glass of wine, and
then, after he had refreshed him with food, bade him tell his
adventures.

* * * * *

Meanwhile the merchant's companions in the market-place, being
dull-witted persons, thought that as he did not return he must have
gone home by himself; and as soon as they were tired of waiting they
went back to their village and left him to look after his own affairs.
He would therefore have fared badly had it not been for his rescuer,
Kooshy Ram, who, whilst still a boy, had been left a great deal of
money with no one to advise him how to spend it. He was high-spirited,
kind-hearted, and shrewd into the bargain; but he threw away his money
like water, and generally upon the nearest thing or person in his way,
and that, alas! most often was himself! Now, however, he had taken it
into his head to befriend this miserable merchant, and he meant to do
it; and on his side the merchant felt confidence revive, and without
further ado told all that had happened.

Kooshy Ram laughed heartily at the idea of any stranger entrusting his
wealth to Beeka Mull.

'Why, he is the greatest rascal in the city,' he cried, 'unless you
believe what some of them say of me! Well, there is nothing to be
done for the present, but just to stay here quietly, and I think that
at the end of a short time I shall find a medicine which will heal
your sickness.' At this the merchant again took courage, and a little
ease crept into his heart as he gratefully accepted his new friend's
invitation.

A few days later Kooshy Ram sent for some friends to see him, and
talked with them long, and, although the merchant did not hear the
conversation, he did hear shouts of laughter as though at some good
joke; but the laughter echoed dully in his own heart, for the more he
considered the more he despaired of ever recovering his fortune from
the grasp of Beeka Mull.

One day, soon after this, Kooshy Ram came to him and said:

'You remember the w