s life. He
rushed to the door, and no sooner saw the door open, than he ran out and
threw the leader down, but could not escape the other robbers, who with
their scimitars soon deprived him of life.

The first care of the robbers after this was to examine the cave. They
found all the bags which Cassim had brought to the door, to be ready to
load his mules, and carried them again to their places, but they did not
miss what Ali Baba had taken away before. Then holding a council, and
deliberating upon this occurrence, they guessed that Cassim, when he was
in, could no get out again, but could not imagine how he had learned the
secret words by which alone he could enter. They could not deny the fact
of his being there; and to terrify any person or accomplice who should
attempt the same thing, they agreed to cut Cassim's body into four
quarters--to hang two on one side, and two on the other, within the door
of the cave. They had no sooner taken this resolution than they put it
in execution; and when they had nothing more to detain them, left the
place of their hoards well closed. They mounted their horses, went to
beat the roads again, and to attack the caravans they might meet.

In the mean time, Cassim's wife was very uneasy when night came, and her
husband was not returned. She ran to Ali Baba in great alarm, and said,
"I believe, brother-in-law, that you know Cassim is gone to the forest,
and upon what account; it is now night, and he has not returned; I am
afraid some misfortune has happened to him." Ali Baba told her that she
need not frighten herself, for that certainly Cassim would not think it
proper to come into the town till the night should be pretty far
advanced.

Cassim's wife, considering how much it concerned her husband to keep the
business secret, was the more easily persuaded to believe her
brother-in-law. She went home again, and waited patiently till midnight.
Then her fear redoubled, and her grief was the more sensible because she
was forced to keep it to herself. She repented of her foolish curiosity,
and cursed her desire of prying into the affairs of her brother and
sister-in-law. She spent all the night in weeping; and as soon as it was
day went to them, telling them, by her tears, the cause of her coming.

Ali Baba did not wait for his sister-in-law to desire him to go to see
what was become of Cassim, but departed immediately with his three
asses, begging of her first to moderate her affliction