body,
avoiding as much as we could the bazaars, where I knew that the
officers of the police kept watch, and by lanes reached the gate of the
caravanserai. Here was a place, every square inch of which I knew by
heart, namely, my father's shaving shop. Being aware that the gate of
the caravanserai would be locked, I made the party halt there, and,
taking up a stone, knocked, and called out to the doorkeeper by name:
'Ali Mohammed,' said I, 'open, open: the caravan is arrived.'

Between asleep and awake, without showing the least symptom of opening,
'What caravan?' said he.

'The caravan from Bagdad.'

'From Bagdad? why that arrived yesterday. Do you laugh at my beard?'

Seeing myself entrapped, I was obliged to have recourse to my own name,
and said, 'Why, a caravan to be sure with Hajji Baba, Kerbelai Hassan
the barber's son, who went away with Osman Aga, the Bagdad merchant. I
bring the news, and expect the present.'

'What, Hajji?' said the porter, 'he who used to shave my head so well?
His place has long been empty. You are welcome.'

Upon which he began to unbolt the heavy gates of the entrance porch,
which, as they creaked on their hinges, discovered a little old man in
his drawers with an iron lamp in his hand, which shed enough light to
show us that the place was full of merchants and their effects.

One of our party immediately seized upon him, and then we all rushed in
and fell to work. Expert in these sort of attacks, my companions knew
exactly where to go for plunder, and they soon took possession of all
the gold and silver that was to be found; but their first object was to
secure two or three of the richest merchants, whose ransom might be a
further source of wealth to them. Ere the alarm had been spread, they
had seized upon three, who from their sleeping upon fine beds, covered
with shawl quilts, and reposing upon embroidered cushions, they expected
would prove a good prize. These they bound hand and foot after their
fashion, and forcing them away, placed them upon their best horses
behind riders, who immediately retreated from the scene of action to the
rendezvous.

From my knowledge of the caravanserai itself, and of the rooms which the
richest merchants generally occupied, I knew where cash was to be found,
and I entered one room as softly as I could (the very room which my
first master had occupied), and seizing upon the small box in which the
merchants generally keep their money, I made off