When the girl finally finished her selection, the woman begged permission to attend to the camels and getting the beasts on their feet led them together to be tethered.
Laodice, assisted by Momus, took up the condemned supplies and flung them one at a time upon the roaring fire.

Little by little, with growing reluctance, the heap of spare belongings was examined and condemned, until finally only the garments they wore, the tents that were to shelter them and the essential harness of the camels were left.

Then Momus drew from his wallet a fragment of aromatic gum and cast it on the blaze.

While it ignited and burned with great vapors of penetrating incense, he unstrapped the precious casket, set it down between his feet, stripped off his comfortable woolen tunic and passed it through the volumes of white smoke piling up from the fire.
And while he stood thus a deft hand seized the casket from behind.
There was a sharp, warning cry from Laodice.

The old man staggered only a moment from the tripping that the wrench gave him, but in that instant of hesitation the pillager vanished.
The old mute shouted the infuriated, half-animal yell of the dumb and started in pursuit, but at his second step he saw the fleeter camel swing down the declivity, at top-speed, with the other trailing with difficulty at full length of its bridle behind.