II

THE MANNER OF CASSIM’S DEATH CONCEALED

When night came, and Cassim did not return, his wife became very uneasy.  She ran to Ali Baba for comfort, and he told her that Cassim would certainly think it unwise to enter the town till night was well advanced.  By midnight Cassim’s wife was still more alarmed, and wept till morning, cursing her desire to pry into the affairs of her brother and sister-in-law.  In the early day she went again, in tears, to Ali Baba.

He did not wait for her to ask him to go and see what had happened to Cassim, but set out at once for the forest with his three asses.  Finding some blood at the door of the cave, he took it for an ill omen; but when he had spoken the words, and the door had opened, he was struck with horror at the dismal sight of his brother’s body.  He could not leave it there, and hastened within to find something to wrap around it.  Laying the body on one of his asses, he covered it with wood.  The other two asses he loaded with bags of gold, covering them also with wood as before.  Then bidding the door shut, he came away, but stopped some time at the edge of the forest, that he might not go into the town before night.  When he reached home he left the two asses, laden with gold, in his little yard for his wife to unload, and led the other to his sister-in-law’s house.

Ali Baba knocked at the door, which was opened by Morgiana, a clever slave, full of devices to conquer difficulties.  When he came into the court and unloaded the ass, he took Morgiana aside, and said to her:—­

“You must observe a strict secrecy.  Your master’s body is contained in these two panniers.  We must bury him as if he had died a natural death.  Go now and tell your mistress.  I leave the matter to your wit and skillful devices.”

They placed the body in Cassim’s house, and, charging Morgiana to act well her part, Ali Baba returned home with his ass.

Early the next morning, Morgiana went to a druggist, and asked for a sort of lozenge used in the most dangerous illness.  When he asked her for whom she wanted it, she answered with a sigh:  “My good master Cassim.  He can neither eat nor speak.”  In the evening she went to the same druggist, and with tears in her eyes asked for an essence given to sick persons for whose life there is little hope.  “Alas!” said she, “I am afraid even this will not save my good master.”

All that day Ali Baba and his wife were seen going sadly between their house and Cassim’s, and in the evening nobody was surprised to hear the shrieks and cries of Cassim’s wife and Morgiana, who told everybody that her master was dead.

The next morning at daybreak she went to an old cobbler, who was always early at work, and, putting a piece of gold in his hand, said:—­

“Baba Mustapha, you must bring your sewing-tackle and come with me; but I must tell you, I shall blindfold you when we reach a certain place.”