“Oh! oh!” replied he, “you would have me do something against my conscience or my honor.”

“God forbid!” said Morgiana, putting another piece of gold in his hand; “only come along with me, and fear nothing.”

Baba Mustapha went with Morgiana, and at a certain place she bound his eyes with a handkerchief, which she never unloosed till they had entered the room of her master’s house, where she had put the corpse together.

“Baba Mustapha,” said she, “you must make haste, and sew the parts of this body together, and when you have done, I will give you another piece of gold.”

After Baba Mustapha had finished his task, she blindfolded him again, gave him the third piece of gold she had promised, and, charging him with secrecy, took him back to the place where she had first bound his eyes.  Taking off the bandage, she watched him till he was out of sight, lest he should return and dog her; then she went home.

At Cassim’s house she made all things ready for the funeral, which was duly performed by the imaum[*] and other ministers of the mosque.  Morgiana, as a slave of the dead man, walked in the procession, weeping, beating her breast, and tearing her hair.  Cassim’s wife stayed at home, uttering doleful cries with the women of the neighborhood, who, according to custom, came to mourn with her.  The whole quarter was filled with sounds of sorrow.

[* Imaum, a Mohammedan priest.]

Thus the manner of Cassim’s death was hushed up, and, besides his widow, Ali Baba, and Morgiana, the slave, nobody in the city suspected the cause of it.  Three or four days after the funeral, Ali Baba removed his few goods openly to his sister-in-law’s house, in which he was to live in the future; but the money he had taken from the robbers was carried thither by night.  As for Cassim’s warehouse, Ali Baba put it entirely under the charge of his eldest son.

III

THE ROBBERS’ PLOT FOILED BY MORGIANA

While all this was going on, the forty robbers again visited their cave in the forest.  Great was their surprise to find Cassim’s body taken away, with some of their bags of gold.

“We are certainly found out,” said the captain; “the body and the money have been taken by some one else who knows our secret.  For our own lives’ sake, we must try and find him.  What say you, my lads?”

The robbers all agreed that this must be done.

“Well,” said the captain, “one of you, the boldest and most skillful, must go to the town, disguised as a stranger, and try if he can hear any talk of the man we killed, and find out where he lived.  This matter is so important that the man who undertakes it and fails should suffer death.  What say you?”

One of the robbers, without waiting to know what the rest might think, started up, and said:  “I submit to this condition, and think it an honor to expose my life to serve the troop.”