s no more oil in the house. After considering what she could
possibly do for a light, she recollected the thirty-eight oil jars in
the yard and determined to take a little oil out of one of them for her
lamp. She took her oil pot in her hand and approached the first jar; the
robber within said, "Is it time, captain?"

Any other slave, on hearing a man in an oil jar, would have screamed
out; but the prudent Morgiana instantly recollected herself, and replied
softly, "No, not yet; lie still till I call you." She passed on to every
jar, receiving the same question and making the same answer, till she
came to the last, which was really filled with oil.

Morgiana was now convinced that this was a plot of the robbers to murder
her master, Ali Baba; so she ran back to the kitchen and brought out a
large kettle, which she filled with oil, and set it on a great wood
fire; and as soon as it boiled she went and poured into the jars
sufficient of the boiling oil to kill every man within them. Having done
this she put out her fire and her lamp, and crept softly to her chamber.

The captain of the robbers, finding everything quiet in the house, and
perceiving no light anywhere, arose and went down into the yard to
assemble his men. Coming to the first jar, he felt the steam of the
boiled oil; he ran hastily to the rest and found every one of his troop
put to death in the same manner. Full of rage and despair at having
failed in his design, he forced the lock of a door that led into the
garden and made his escape over the walls.

On the following morning Morgiana related to her master, Ali Baba, his
wonderful deliverance from the pretended oil-merchant and his gang of
robbers. Ali Baba at first could scarcely credit her tale; but when he
saw the robbers dead in the jars, he could not sufficiently praise her
courage and sagacity; and without letting any one else into the secret,
he and Morgiana the next night buried the thirty-seven thieves in a deep
trench at the bottom of the garden. The jars and mules, as he had no use
for them, were sent from time to time to the different markets and sold.

While Ali Baba took these measures to prevent his and Cassim's
adventures in the forest from being known, the captain returned to his
cave, and for some time abandoned himself to grief and despair. At
length, however, he determined to adopt a new scheme for the destruction
of Ali Baba. He removed by degrees all the valuable merchandise from t