motionless, sometimes looking at the jars, and sometimes at Morgiana,
without saying a word, so great was his surprise: at last, when he had
recovered himself, he said: "And what is become of the merchant?"

"Merchant!" answered she, "he is as much one as I am; I will tell you
who he is, and what is become of him: but you had better hear the story
in your own chamber; for it is time for your health that you had your
broth after your bathing."

While Ali Baba retired to his chamber, Morgiana went into the kitchen to
fetch the broth, but before he would drink it, he first entreated her to
satisfy his impatience, and tell him what had happened, with all the
circumstances; and she obeyed him.

"This," she said, when she had completed her story, "is the account you
asked of me; and I am convinced it is the consequence of what I observed
some days ago, but did not think fit to acquaint you with; for when I
came in one morning early I found our street door marked with white
chalk, and the next morning with red; upon which, both times without
knowing what was the intention of those chalks, I marked two or three
neighbours' doors on each side in the same manner. If you reflect on
this, and what has since happened, you will find it to be a plot of the
robbers of the forest, of whose gang there are two wanting, and now they
are reduced to three: all this shows that they had sworn your
destruction, and it is proper you should be upon your guard, while there
is one of them alive: for my part, I shall neglect nothing necessary to
your preservation, as I am in duty bound."

When Morgiana had left off speaking, Ali Baba was so sensible of the
great service she had done him, that he said to her: "I will not die
without rewarding you as you deserve; I owe my life to you, and for the
first token of my acknowledgment, give you your liberty from this
moment, till I can complete your recompense as I intend. I am persuaded
with you, that the forty robbers have laid snares for my destruction.
God, by your means, has delivered me from them as yet, and I hope will
continue to preserve me from their wicked designs, and deliver the world
from their persecution. All that we have to do is to bury the bodies of
these pests of mankind immediately, and with all the secrecy imaginable,
that nobody may suspect what is become of them. But that labour
Abdoollah and I will undertake."

Ali Baba's garden was very long, and shaded at the farther end by