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

"If I were disposed to do you that favour," replied Baba Mustapha, "I
assure you I cannot. I was taken to a certain place, whence I was led
blindfold to the house, and afterward brought back again in the same
manner; you see, therefore, the impossibility of my doing what you
desire."

"Well," replied the robber, "you may, however, 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; perhaps you may recognise some part;
and as everybody ought to be paid for their trouble, there is another
piece of gold for you; gratify me in what I ask you." So saying, he put
another piece of gold into his hand.

The two pieces of gold were great temptations to Baba Mustapha. He
looked at them a long time in his hand, without saying a word, but at
last he pulled out his purse and put them in. "I cannot promise," said
he to the robber, "that I can remember the way exactly; but since you
desire, I will try what I can do." At these words Baba Mustapha rose up,
to the great joy of the robber, and led him to the place where Morgiana
had bound his eyes. "It was here," said Baba Mustapha, "I was
blindfolded; and I turned this way." The robber tied his handkerchief
over his eyes, and walked by him till he stopped directly at Cassim's
house, where Ali Baba then lived. The thief, before he pulled off the
band, marked the door with a piece of chalk, which he had ready in his
hand, and then asked him if he knew whose house that was; to which Baba
Mustapha replied that as he did not live in that neighbourhood, he could