This won great praise from the robber’s comrades, and he disguised himself at once so that nobody could take him for what he was.  Just at daybreak he entered the town, and walked up and down till he came by chance to Baba Mustapha’s stall, which was always open before any of the shops.

The old cobbler was just going to work when the robber bade him good-morrow, and said:—­

“Honest man, you begin to work very early; how can one of your age see so well?  Even if it were lighter, I question whether you could see to stitch.”

“You do not know me,” replied Baba Mustapha; “for old as I am I have excellent eyes.  You will not doubt me when I tell you that I sewed the body of a dead man together in a place where I had not so much light as I have now.”

“A dead body!” exclaimed the robber amazed.

“Yes, yes,” answered Baba Mustapha; “I see you want to know more, but you shall not.”

The robber felt sure that he was on the right track.  He put a piece of gold into Baba Mustapha’s hand, and said to him:—­

“I do not want to learn your secret, though you could safely trust me with it.  The only thing I ask of you is to show me the house where you stitched up the dead body.”

“I could not do that,” replied Baba Mustapha, “if I would.  I was taken to a certain place, whence I was led blindfold to the house, and afterwards brought back again in the same manner.”

“Well,” replied the robber, “you may remember a little of the way that you were led blindfold.  Come, let me blind your eyes at the same place.  We will walk together, and perhaps you may recall the way.  Here is another piece of gold for you.”

This was enough to bring Baba Mustapha to his feet.  They soon reached the place where Morgiana had bandaged his eyes, and here he was blindfolded again.  Baba Mustapha and the robber walked on till they came to Cassim’s house, where Ali Baba now lived.  Here the old man stopped, and when the thief pulled off the band, and found that his guide could not tell him whose house it was, he let him go.  But before he started back for the forest himself, well pleased with what he had learned, he marked the door with a piece of chalk which he had ready in his hand.

Soon after this Morgiana came out upon some errand, and when she returned she saw the mark the robber had made, and stopped to look at it.

“What can this mean?” she said to herself.  “Somebody intends my master harm, and in any case it is best to guard against the worst.”  Then she fetched a piece of chalk, and marked two or three doors on each side in the same manner, saying nothing to her master or mistress.

When the robber rejoined his troop in the forest, and told of his good fortune in meeting the one man that could have helped him, they were all delighted.

“Comrades,” said the captain, “we have no time to lose.  Let us set off at once, well armed and disguised, enter the town by twos, and join at the great square.  Meanwhile our comrade who has brought us the good news and I will go and find out the house, and decide what had best be done.”