Now when it was the Seven Hundred and Thirteenth Night,
She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Ali of Cairo, after drugging the cook-slave with Bhang, took the two knives which he stuck in his belt and, carrying the vegetable-basket, went to the market where he bought meat and greens; and, presently returning to the Khan, he saw Dalilah seated at the gate, watching those who went in and came out, and the forty slaves with her, armed. So he heartened his heart and entered; but Dalilah knew him and said to him, “Back, O captain of thieves! Wilt thou play a trick on me in the Khan?” Thereupon he (dressed as a slave) turned and said to her, “What sayest thou, O portress?” She asked, “What hast thou done with the slave, our cook?; say me if thou hast killed or drugged him?” He answered, “What cook? Is there here another slave-cook than I?” She rejoined, “Thou liest, thou art Mercury Ali the Cairene.” And he said to her, in slaves’ patois, “O portress, are the Cairenes black or white? I will slave for you no longer.” Then said the slaves to him, “What is the matter with thee, O our cousin?” Cried Dalilah, “This is none of your uncle’s children, but Ali Zaybak the Egyptian; and meseems he hath either drugged your cousin or killed him.” But they said, “Indeed this is our cousin Sa’adu’llah the cook;” and she, “Not so, ’tis Mercury Ali, and he hath dyed his skin.” Quoth the sharper, “And who is Ali? I am Sa’adu’llah.” Then she fetched unguent of proof, with which she anointed Ali’s forearm and rubbed it; but the black did not come off; whereupon quoth the slaves, “Let him go and dress us our dinner.” Quoth Dalilah, “If he be indeed your cousin, he knoweth what you sought of him yesternight[239] and how many dishes he cooketh every day.” So they asked him of this and he said, “Every day I cook you five dishes for the morning and the like for the evening meal, lentils and rice and broth and stew[240] and sherbet of roses; and yesternight ye sought of me a sixth dish and a seventh, to wit yellow rice and cooked pomegranate seed.” And the slaves said “Right!” Then quoth Dalilah, “In with him and if he know the kitchen and the larder, he is indeed your cousin; but, if not, kill him.” Now the cook had a cat which he had brought up, and whenever he entered the kitchen it would stand at the door and spring to his back, as soon as he went in. So, when Ali entered, the cat saw him and jumped on his shoulders; but he threw it off and it ran before him to the door of the kitchen and stopped there. He guessed that this was the kitchen door; so he took the keys and seeing one with traces of feathers thereon, knew it for the kitchen key and therewith opened the door. Then he entered and setting down the greens, went out again, led by the cat, which ran before him and stopped at another door. He guessed that this was the larder and seeing one of the keys marked with grease, knew it for the key and opened the door therewith; whereupon quoth the slaves, “O Dalilah, were he a stranger, he had not known the kitchen and the larder, nor had he been able to distinguish the keys thereof from the rest; verily, he is our cousin Sa’adu’llah.” Quoth she, “He learned the places from the cat and distinguished the keys one from the other by the appearance: but this cleverness imposeth not upon _me_.” Then he returned to the kitchen where he cooked the dinner and, carrying Zaynab’s tray up to her room, saw all the stolen clothes hanging up; after which he went down and took Dalilah her tray and gave the slaves and the dogs their rations. The like he did at sundown and drugged Dalilah’s food and that of Zaynab and the slaves. Now the doors of the Khan were opened and shut with the sun. So Ali went forth and cried out, saying, “O dwellers in the Khan, the watch is set and we have loosed the dogs; whoso stirreth out after this can blame none save himself.” But he had delayed the dogs’ supper and put poison therein; consequently when he set it before them, they ate of it and died while the slaves and Dalilah and Zaynab still slept under Bhang. Then he went up and took all the clothes and the carrier-pigeons and, opening the gate, made off to the barrack of the Forty, where he found Hasan Shuman the Pestilence who said to him, “How hast thou fared?” Thereupon he told him what had passed and he praised him. Then he caused him put off his clothes and boiled a decoction of herbs wherewith he washed him, and his skin became white as it was; after which he donned his own dress and going back to the Khan, clad the cook in the habit he had taken from him and made him smell to the counter-drug; upon which the slave awoke and going forth to the greengrocer’s, bought vegetables and returned to the Khan.