aba Mustapha. "I see you want me to speak out,
but you shall know no more."

The robber felt sure that he had discovered what he sought. He pulled
out a piece of gold, and putting it into Baba Mustapha's hand, said to
him, "I do not want to learn your secret, though I can assure you you
might safely trust me with it. The only thing I desire of you is to
show me the house where you stitched up the dead body."

"If I were disposed to do you that favor," replied Baba Mustapha, "I
assure you I cannot. I was taken to a certain place, whence I was led
blindfold to the house, and afterward brought back in the same manner.
You see, therefore, the impossibility of my doing what you desire."

"Well," replied the robber, "you may, however, 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; perhaps you may recognize some
part, and as every one should be paid for his trouble here is another
piece of gold for you; gratify me in what I ask you." So saying, he
put another piece of gold into his hand.

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 neighborhood, he could not tell.

The robber, finding that 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 me