A change came over the face of the old man as he took it and examined it. Tears stood in his eyes, and he muttered thickly: Allah's name be praised! i welcome you with my heart. He that has seen my son is indeed my son too.
He gave Miquel food and clothing, and that night they sat by the fire, talking.
"Where is the brother of your son? Miquel asked. 1 have a message for him.'
The brother soon appeared, and Miquel told him that his brother wanted to see him. "My mission here is to collect the sap of a certain tree that your brother
has described to me. When I have done that, I shall return to Zauna da Shirin Ka'.
There need be no hurry about that, said the old man. You can go soon enough. When you've rested, perhaps l can take you to the tree myself.
Miquel relaxed for two whole days. Then he became impatient, but now the old man did his best to persuade him not to go to the forest. "No man I know, he said, has ever gone there and come back alive. I have been in this Kobonka Naka for fifty years, and during that time many people have been to Kurmin Rukiki. Where are they? What happened to them?"
I don't know, and I don't care either. If I must die, better to die in the quest than to live a coward.
The old man thought to himself: "If I let him go, I shall never get in touch with my son.
Listen, Miquel, he said. 'The best thing is this: take
Derrick's brother back to Zauna da Shirin Ka. Then you can come back and continue your journey.
"No,my father. I am going forward. I shall alway go forward; never backward.
The old man burst into tears. At that Miquel took up the Charm, and bade him goodbye. I have always been a wanderer. A wanderer I shall remain; said Miquel to himself.
Miquel set out on his journey. He had not gone very far, when the old man called him back and apologized.
'Forgive me, Miquel. But think of what it is not to see your son for nearly thirty years. Do not go away like this. Tomorrow will be a better day, for then you can have Derrick' s brother to guide you.
Next day he gave Miquel five pounds and a horse.
These are for your food and your travel. This gourd you must use for storing the sap, for it must never be touched by the bare hands. My son will go with you
part of the way on horseback. Goodbye.
The son led him for a few miles till he came to the parting of the ways. Go ahead. You simply cannot miss your way. If you're in doubt, ask anyone you meet: Where is Kurmin Rukiki?"
Miquel thanked him, and they parted.
Miquel rode on, till the sweat was gumming his clothes to his body. In the full heat of the afternoon he stopped near a stream and ate some food. Then he led his horse down-stream, watered her, took off his clothes,
and entered the water to bathe himself.
The water was cool and refreshing. He splashed it carelessly, and filled his treasured gourd with it.
Presently he heard a hostile shout, Kai... Kail' and, when he turned round, two evil-looking men stood before him.
What do you want? he stammered.
How did you get into this forest? one of the men snarled. 'What are you doing?
"I was hot and tired, and and I wanted to bathe.
Come out of it, you fool!'
The man jumped in, and dragging Miquel out, beat him severely. When he was almost senseless, both men left, taking with them his horse and his money.
They walked away but suddenly turned and came back, as they said, to leave a mark on his body.
You seem very happy here, said one of the men. when they got back. You're not even afraid of us.
Don't you know that we are the most dreaded rogues of this area?"
Miquel said: 'You have taken my money and my horse; what more do you want of me?"
This!' said the man, and stepping forward, he cutoff Miquel's left ear. Then they left him.
Still Miquel pressed forward. Late in the evening he met a number of men driving donkeys. He called out to them, and the men turned round and started to shout: "Thief! Thief!
"I am not a thief, he pleaded. How can I be a thief?
"Then who are you?
Miquel told them how the two men had robbed him of his money and cut off his left ear. He ended by begging them to take him into their company, since
he was afraid to continue his journey alone. They agreed, and put him on a donkey. As a sign that he had been admitted into their brotherhood, they served him with food and water. "People never travel alone in these parts, they told him. They travel in tens and dozens.
When they got to the market, Miquel helped the merchants to sell their things. He sat in the stall until far in to the night, when the gathering dispersed. The
donkey-men thanked him for his services and left.
Miquel was at a loss where to spend the night. He wandered from door to door, asking for shelter, but his cut ear was against him, and everybody who saw him thought he had lost it in a burglary. They called him a thief and shut their doors in his face. He had no alternative but to go to the market-place and sleep there.
At about midnight he heard shouts of Thief Thief! The alarm seemed to be coming from the
centre of the town, but, as he got shakily to his feet, he realized that the voices were coming nearer and nearer. What was he to do?
He could not run away, for that would lead the men to suspect him; he did not dare rush towards them. Miquel stood there, still half asleep, half confused.
Men rushed into the market-place. In a flash the thieves raced past him, and hot on their heels came the pursuers.
This is the man! This is the man!..Catch him!"
They seized the protesting Miquel, and nothing he said
or did could make them change their minds. Lights were shone on his face, and as soon as the men saw his ear they exclaimed: Look at his left ear! They cut it off when he went to steal.'
"Not so!' he argued. I... I am no thief. I came here yesterday, and I had nowhere to stay.'
They led him to the house of the king and charged him with stealing. He denied ever having stolen anything in his life, and started to explain how a company of traders had brought him there. But no one would
listen to him.
"Have you or have you not stolen the missing things?
"I have not.'
If you are an honest man, why did you not report yourselt to the king as soon as you arrived? what stopped your mouth?
Miquel could answer nothing to this question, and they sentenced him to three months imprisonment.
The people whom Miquel met in prison were very boastful. Every day, whenever they went to work under guard, they would recount how they had ralded rich men, how they had swindled unsuspecting people, and what they hoped to do when they got back their freedom. Miquel never said a word, nor joined in their conversation.
The warder was surprised at this. He asked Miquel whether he had any feats of daring to recount, and Miquel maintained time and time again that he was not a thief; that he had been sentenced to jail for a crime he had not committed. The warder sympathized with him but could do nothing about it. He let Abu keep his gourd, useless though it seemed.
Miquel served his three months without complaining.
On the day of his release, he went to this sympathetic warder and made him an offer.
"I am in great difficulty, he stated. I have not a penny in the world. will you accept me as your
servant, so that in a few months I can see what God has in store for me?
The warder, in spite of friends warning him, received Miquel with joy, and gave him a chance to reinstate himselt. But the warder's friends kept on pestering him to remove Miquel, asserting all the time that Miquel was a thief, and that it was unthinkable that a warder should harbour a thief in his own household.
The warder's belief in Miquel was not shaken. He tested Miquel's honesty by giving him money to buy and sell things. Miquel not only sold the goods, but brought back more profit than the Warder had ever dreamt of.
After a month, Miquel, of his own initiative, added to his duties that of porter. Every penny he made he showed his master to avoid any form of suspicion. He kept this money on one side day atter day until he was quite sure he had saved twenty shillings. That night he called his master aside and said: