st and most skillful,
must go to the town, disguised as a stranger, and try if he can hear
any talk of the man we killed, and find out where he lived. This
matter is so important that the man who undertakes it and fails should
suffer death. What say you?"

One of the robbers, without waiting to know what the rest might think,
started up, and said, "I submit to this condition, and think it an
honor to expose my life to serve the troop."

This won great praise from the robber's comrades, and he disguised
himself at once so that nobody could take him for what he was. Just at
daybreak he entered the town, and walked up and down till he came by
chance to Baba Mustapha's stall, which was always open before any of
the shops.

The old cobbler was just going to work when the robber bade him
good-morrow, and said,--

"Honest man, you begin to work very early; how can one of your age see
so well? Even if it were lighter, I question whether you could see to
stitch."

"You do not know me," replied Baba Mustapha; "for old as I am I have
excellent eyes. You will not doubt me when I tell you that I sewed the
body of a dead man together in a place where I had not so much light
as I have now."

"A dead body!" exclaimed the robber amazed.

"Yes, yes," answered Baba Mustapha; "I see you want to know more, but
you shall not."

The robber felt sure that he was on the right track. He put a piece of
gold into Baba Mustapha's hand, and said to him,--

"I do not want to learn your secret, though you could safely trust me
with it. The only thing I ask of you is to show me the house where you
stitched up the dead body."

"I could not do that," replied Baba Mustapha, "if I would. I was taken
to a certain place, whence I was led blindfold to the house, and
afterwards brought back again in the same manner."

"Well," replied the robber, "you may 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, and perhaps you may recall the way. Here
is another piece of gold for you."

This was enough to bring Baba Mustapha to his feet. They soon reached
the place where Morgiana had bandaged his eyes, and here he was
blindfolded again. Baba Mustapha and the robber walked on till they
came to Cassim's house, where Ali Baba now lived. Here the old man
stopped, and when the thief pulled off the band, and found that his
guide could not tell him whose house it was, he let him g