Would he jump for joy at the news, or would it only increase the misery of his imprisonment and reinforce the walls of confinement around him? When he had told the family that he intended to return by summer's end or at the beginning of autumn at the latest, it had seemed both possible and probable to him. But time does not disclose its secrets to humankind, and the possible turned impossible. Saad was assigned to receive a shipment of gunpowder from a deserted spot by the coast. He received it under the protection of night, loaded it onto his mule, and took it through whatever deserted roads he could find, passing through whatever villages he had to. Whenever he came into a village, he claimed he was carrying a shipment of wheat to the inhabitants of his village, and that he was merely a cart driver whose task was to deliver goods. Then he entered the ill-fated village where he encountered what he was doomed to encounter. Some of the villagers told him, "We will buy some wheat." He answered, "It's not mine to sell.
