The two pieces of gold were great temptations to Baba Mustapha.  He looked at them a long time in his hand, without saying a word, but at last he pulled out his purse and put them in.  “I cannot promise,” said he to the robber, “that I can remember the way exactly; but since you desire, I will try what I can do.”  At these words Baba Mustapha rose up, to the great joy of the robber, and led him to the place where Morgiana had bound his eyes.  “It was here,” said Baba Mustapha, “I was blindfolded; and I turned this way.”  The robber tied his handkerchief over his eyes, and walked by him till he stopped directly at Cassim’s house, where Ali Baba then lived.  The thief, before he pulled off the band, marked the door with a piece of chalk, which he had ready in his hand, and then asked him if he knew whose house that was; to which Baba Mustapha replied that as he did not live in that neighbourhood, he could not tell.

The robber, finding he could discover no more from Baba Mustapha, thanked him for the trouble he had taken, and left him to go back to his stall, while he returned to the forest, persuaded that he should be very well received.

A little after the robber and Baba Mustapha had parted, Morgiana went out of Ali Baba’s house upon some errand, and upon her return, seeing the mark the robber had made, stopped to observe it.  “What can be the meaning of this mark?” said she to herself; “somebody intends my master no good:  however, with whatever intention it was done, it is advisable to guard against the worst.”  Accordingly, she fetched a piece of chalk, and marked two or three doors on each side, in the same manner, without saying a word to her master or mistress.

In the mean time, the robber rejoined his troop in the forest, and recounted to them his success; expatiating upon his good fortune, in meeting so soon with the only person who could inform him of what he wanted to know.  All the robbers listened to him with the utmost satisfaction; when the captain, after commending his diligence, addressing himself to them all, said, “Comrades, we have no time to lose:  let us set off well armed, without its appearing who we are; but that we may not excite any suspicion, let only one or two go into the town together, and join at our rendezvous, which shall be the great square.  In the mean time, our comrade who brought us the good news and I will go and find out the house, that we may consult what had best be done.”

This speech and plan was approved of by all, and they were soon ready.  They filed off in parties of two each, after some interval of time, and got into the town without being in the least suspected.  The captain, and he who had visited the town in the morning as spy, came in the last.  He led the captain into the street where he had marked Ali Baba’s residence; and when they came to the first of the houses which Morgiana had marked, he pointed it out.  But the captain observed that the next door was chalked