get out again, but could not imagine
how he had learned the secret words by which alone he could enter.
They could not deny the fact of his being there; and to terrify any
person or accomplice who should attempt the same thing, they agreed to
cut Cassim's body into four quarters--to hang two on one side, and two
on the other, within the door of the cave. They had no sooner taken
this resolution than they put it in execution; and when they had
nothing more to detain them, left the place of their hoards well
closed. They mounted their horses, went to beat the roads again, and
to attack the caravans they might meet.

In the meantime, Cassim's wife was very uneasy when night came, and
her husband was not returned. She ran to Ali Baba in great alarm, and
said, "I believe, brother-in-law, that you know Cassim is gone to the
forest, and upon what account. It is now night, and he has not
returned. I am afraid some misfortune has happened to him."

Ali Baba told her that she need not frighten herself, for that
certainly Cassim would not think it proper to come into the town till
the night should be pretty far advanced.

Cassim's wife, considering how much it concerned her husband to keep
the business secret, was the more easily persuaded to believe her
brother-in-law. She went home again, and waited patiently till
midnight. Then her fear redoubled, and her grief was the more sensible
because she was forced to keep it to herself. She repented of her
foolish curiosity, and cursed her desire of prying into the affairs of
her brother and sister-in-law. She spent all the night in weeping; and
as soon as it was day went to them, telling them, by her tears, the
cause of her coming.

Ali Baba did not wait for his sister-in-law to desire him to go to see
what was become of Cassim, but departed immediately with his three
asses, begging of her first to moderate her grief. He went to the
forest, and when he came near the rock, having seen neither his
brother nor his mules on his way, was seriously alarmed at finding
some blood spilt near the door, which he took for an ill omen; but
when he had pronounced the word, and the door had opened, he was
struck with horror at the dismal sight of his brother's body. He was
not long in determining how he should pay the last dues to his
brother; but without adverting to the little fraternal affection he
had shown for him, went into the cave, to find something to enshroud
his remains. Having loade