" Quoth
Khwajah Hasan, "O my lord, thou dost indeed provide much pleasant
entertainment."
Then the slave boy Abdullah, standing by, began to strike the
tambourine whilst Morgiana rose up and showed her perfect art and
pleased them vastly with graceful steps and sportive motion. And
suddenly, drawing the poniard from her belt, she brandished it and
paced from side to side, a spectacle which pleased them most of all.
At times also she stood before them, now clapping the sharp-edged
dagger under armpit and then setting it against her breast. Lastly she
took the tambourine from the slave boy Abdullah, and still holding the
poniard in her right, she went round for largess as is the custom
amongst merrymakers. First she stood before Ali Baba, who threw a gold
coin into the tambourine, and his nephew likewise put in an ashrafi.
Then Khwajah Hasan, seeing her about to approach him, fell to
pulling out his purse, when she heartened her heart, and quick as
the blinding levin she plunged the dagger into his vitals, and
forthwith the miscreant fell back stone-dead.
Ali Baba was dismayed, and cried in his wrath: "O unhappy, what is
this deed thou hast done to bring about my ruin?" But she replied:
"Nay, O my lord, rather to save thee and not to cause thee harm have I
slain this man.
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