ly
conducted his captain to the spot; but great indeed was his confusion
and dismay when he found it impossible to say which, among fifteen
houses marked exactly alike, was the right one. The captain, furious
with his disappointment, returned again with the troop to the forest;
and the second robber was also condemned to death.

The captain having lost two of his troop, judged that their hands were
more active than their heads in such services; and he resolved to employ
no other of them, but to go himself upon the business. Accordingly he
repaired to the city and addressed himself to the cobbler Mustapha, who,
for six pieces of gold, readily performed the services for him he had
done for the other two strangers. The captain, much wiser than his men,
did not amuse himself with setting a mark upon the door, but attentively
considered the house, counted the number of windows, and passed by it
very often, to be certain that he should know it again.

He then returned to the forest, and ordered his troop to go into the
town, and buy nineteen mules and thirty-eight large jars, one full of
oil and the rest empty. In two or three days the jars were bought, and
all things in readiness; and the captain having put a man into each jar,
properly armed, the jars being rubbed on the outside with oil, and the
covers having holes bored in them for the men to breathe through, loaded
his mules, and in the habit of an oil-merchant entered the town in the
dusk of the evening. He proceeded to the street where Ali Baba dwelt,
and found him sitting in the porch of his house. "Sir," said he to Ali
Baba, "I have brought this oil a great way to sell, and am too late for
this day's market. As I am quite a stranger in this town, will you do me
the favor to let me put my mules into your court-yard, and direct me
where I may lodge to-night?"

Ali Baba, who was a very good-natured man, welcomed the pretended
oil-merchant very kindly, and offered him a bed in his own house; and
having ordered the mules to be unloaded in the yard, and properly fed,
he invited his guest in to supper. The captain, having seen the jars
placed ready in the yard, followed Ali Baba into the house, and after
supper was shown to the chamber where he was to sleep.

It happened that Morgiana was obliged to sit up later that night than
usual, to get ready her master's bathing linen for the following
morning; and while she was busy about the fire, her lamp went out, and
there wa