the rascal managed to persuade his father-in-law, who had no other
children, took his wife Pearl with her beautiful ornaments, and an
old woman, and started for his own country. Presently he came to a
wood where he said he was afraid of thieves, so he took all his
wife's ornaments. Perceive, O Prince, how cruel and hard are the
ungrateful hearts of those who indulge in gambling and other
vices. And the scoundrel was ready, just for money, to kill his
good wife. He threw her and the old woman into a pit. Then the
rascal went away and the old woman perished there.

But Pearl, with the little life she had left, managed to get out by
clinging to the grass and bushes, and weeping bitterly, and
bleeding, she asked the way step by step, and painfully reached her
father's house by the way she had come. And her mother and
father were surprised and asked her: "Why did you come back so
soon, and in this condition?"

And that good wife said: "On the road we were robbed, and my
husband was forcibly carried off. And the old woman fell into a pit
and died, but I escaped. And a kind-hearted traveller pulled me
from the pit." Then her father and mother were saddened, but they
comforted her, and Pearl stayed there, true to her husband.

Then in time Treasure lost all his money in gambling, and he
reflected: "I will get more money from the house of my
father-in-law. I will go there and tell my father-in-law that his
daughter is well and is at my house."

So he went again to his father-in-law. And as he went, his
ever-faithful wife saw him afar off. She ran and fell at the rascal's