en they returned he was at once beheaded for
having failed. Another robber was despatched, and, having won over
Baba Mustapha, marked the house in red chalk; but Morgiana being again
too clever for them, the second messenger was put to death also. The
Captain now resolved to go himself, but, wiser than the others, he did
not mark the house, but looked at it so closely that he could not fail
to remember it. He returned, and ordered his men to go into the
neighboring villages and buy nineteen mules, and thirty-eight leather
jars, all empty, except one which was full of oil. The Captain put one
of his men, fully armed, into each, rubbing the outside of the jars
with oil from the full vessel. Then the nineteen mules were loaded
with thirty-seven robbers in jars, and the jar of oil, and reached
the town by dusk. The Captain stopped his mules in front of Ali Baba's
house, and said to Ali Baba, who was sitting outside for coolness: "I
have brought some oil from a distance to sell at to-morrow's market,
but it is now so late that I know not where to pass the night, unless
you will do me the favor to take me in." Though Ali Baba had seen the
Captain of the robbers in the forest, he did not recognize him in the
disguise of an oil merchant. He bade him welcome, opened his gates for
the mules to enter, and went to Morgiana to bid her prepare a bed and
supper for his guest. He brought the stranger into his hall, and after
they had supped went again to speak to Morgiana in the kitchen, while
the Captain went into the yard under pretence of seeing after his
mules, but really to tell his men what to do. Beginning at the first
jar and ending at the last, he said to each man: "As soon as I throw
some stones from the window of the chamber where I lie, cut the jars
open with your knives and come out, and I will be with you in a
trice." He returned to the house, and Morgiana led him to his chamber.
She then told Abdallah, her fellow-slave, to set on the pot to make
some broth for her master, who had gone to bed. Meanwhile her lamp
went out, and she had no more oil in the house. "Do not be uneasy,"
said Abdallah; "go into the yard and take some out of one of those
jars." Morgiana thanked him for his advice, took the oil-pot, and went
into the yard. When she came to the first jar the robber inside said
softly: "Is it time?"

Any other slave but Morgiana, on finding a man in the jar instead of
the oil she wanted, would have screamed, and made