Then I sang and the captain said, “It is good,” Quoth I, “Nay, but thou art loathly.”  He looked at me and said, “By Allah, thou shalt never more scent the odour of the world!” But his comrades said to him, “Do it not,” and appeased him, till he said, “If it must be so, she shall abide here a whole year, not going forth.”  And I said, “I am content to submit to whatsoever pleaseth thee.  If I have erred, thou art of those to whom pertaineth clemency.”  He shook his head and drank, then arose and went out to do his occasion, what while his comrades were occupied with what they were about of merry-making and drunkenness and sport.  So I winked to my fellows and we slipped out into the corridor.  We found the door open and fled forth, unveiled and knowing not whither we went; nor did we halt till we had left the house far behind and happened on a cook cooking, to whom said I, “Hast thou a mind to quicken dead folk?” And he said, “Come up.”  So we went up into the shop, and he said, ’Lie down.”  Accordingly, we lay down and he covered us with the grass,[FN#137] wherewith he was used to kindle [the fire] under the food.

Hardly had we settled ourselves in the place when we heard a noise of kicking [at the door] and people running right and left and questioning the cook and saying, “Hath any one passed by thee?” “Nay,” answered he; “none hath passed by me.”  But they ceased not to go round about the shop till the day broke, when they turned back, disappointed.  Then the cook removed the grass and said to us, “Arise, for ye are delivered from death.”  So we arose, and we were uncovered, without mantle or veil; but the cook carried us up into his house and we sent to our lodgings and fetched us veils; and we repented unto God the Most High and renounced singing,[FN#138] for indeed this was a great deliverance after stress.’

The company marvelled at this story and the tenth officer came forward and said, ’As for me, there befell me that which was yet more extraordinary than all this.’  Quoth El Melik ez Zahir, ’What was that?’ And he said,

The tenth officer’s story.

’A great theft had been committed in the city and I was cited,[FN#139] I and my fellows.  Now it was a matter of considerable value and they[FN#140] pressed hard upon us; but we obtained of them some days’ grace and dispersed in quest of the stolen goods.  As for me, I sallied forth with five men and went round about the city that day; and on the morrow we fared forth [into the suburbs].  When we came a parasang or two parasangs’ distance from the city, we were athirst; and presently we came to a garden.  So I went in and going up to the water-wheel,[FN#141] entered it and drank and made the ablution and prayed.  Presently up came the keeper of the garden and said to me, “Out on thee!  Who brought thee into this water-wheel?” And he cuffed me and squeezed my ribs till I was like to die.  Then he bound me with one of his bulls and made me turn in the water-wheel, flogging me the while with a cattle whip he had with him, till my heart was on fire; after which he loosed me and I went out, knowing not the way.