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smiles and bows, saying: "You know,
gentlemen, that like most really successful men, my chief is as silent as
his decisions are rapid; he will listen to what you have to say, and it
will be a plain yes or no at the end of it."
These gentlemen came with a proposal to sell to the firm for the sum of
one million dinars a barren rock in the Indian Sea, which was not even
theirs, and on which indeed not one of them had ever set eyes. Their
claim to advance so original a proposal was that to their certain
knowledge two thousand of the wealthiest citizens of their town were
willing to buy the rock again at a profit from whoever should be its
possessor during the next few weeks in the fond hope of selling it once
again to provincials, clerics, widows, orphans, and in general the
uninstructed and the credulous--among whom had been industriously
spread the report that the rock in question consisted of one solid and
flawless diamond.
These gentlemen sitting round the table before the shrouded figure laid
down their proposals, whereupon the manager briefly summed up what
they had said, and having done so, replied: "Gentlemen, his lordship is

a man of few words; but you will have your answer in a moment if you
will be good enough to rise, as he is at this moment expecting a
deputation from the Holy Men who are entreating him to provide the
cost of a mosque in one of the suburbs."
The proposers of the bargain rose, greatly awed and pleased by the
silence and dignity of the financier who apparently remained for a
moment discussing their proposals without gesture and in a tone too
low for them to hear, while his manager bent over to listen.
"It is ever so," said one of them, "you may ever know the greatest men
by their silence."
"You are right," said another, "he is not one to be easily deceived."
The manager in a moment or two rejoined them at the door.
"Gentlemen," he said, smiling, "my chief has heard your arguments and
has expressed his assent to your conditions."
They went out, delighted at the success of their mission, and
congratulated Ahmed upon the financier's genius.
"He does not," said the manager, laughing in hearty agreement,
"bestow himself as a present upon all and sundry. Nor is he often
caught indulging in short bouts of sleep, nor are flies diabolically left to
repose undisturbed upon his features--but you must excuse me, I hear
the Holy Men," and indeed from the inner room came a noise of
speechifying in that doleful sing-song which is associated in Bagdad
with the practice of religion.
The gentlemen who had thus had the luck to interview
Mahmoud's-Nephew with such success in the matter of the Diamond
Island, soon spread about the news, and confirmed their fellow-citizens
in the certitude that a great financier is neither talkative nor vivacious.
"Still waters run deep," they said, and all those to whom they said it
nodded in a wise acquiescence. Nor had the Manager the least
difficulty in receiving one set of customers after another and in
negotiating within three weeks an infinite amount of business, all of
which confirmed those who had the pleasure of an audience with the
stuffed dummy that great fortunes were made and retained by reticence
and a contempt for convivial weakness.
At last the ingenious man of affairs, to whom the whole combination
was due, was not a little disturbed to receive from the Caliph a note
couched in the following terms:

"The Commander of the Faithful and the Servant of the Merciful whose
name be exalted, to the Nephew of Mahmoud:
"My Lord:--
"It has been the custom since the days of my grandfather (May his soul
see God!) for the more wealthy of the Faithful to be called to my
councils, and upon my summoning them thither it has not been unusual
for them to present sums varying in magnitude but always
proportionate to their total fortunes. My court will receive signal
honour if you will present yourself after the morning prayer of the day
after to-morrow. My treasurer will receive from you with gratitude and
remembrance upon the previous day and not later than noon, the sum of
one million dinars."
Here, indeed, was a perplexity. The payment of the money was an easy
matter and was duly accomplished; but how should the lay figure
which did duty in such domestic scenes as the negotiation of loans, the
bullying of debtors, the purchase of options, and the cheating of the
innocent and the embarrassed, take his place in the Caliph's council and
remain undiscovered? For great as was the reputation of
Mahmoud's-Nephew for discretion and for