The first care of the robbers was to examine the cave.  They found all the bags Cassim had brought to the door, but did not miss what Ali Baba had taken.  As for Cassim himself, they guessed rightly that, once within, he could not get out again; but how he had managed to learn their secret words that let him in, they could not tell.  One thing was certain—­there he was; and to warn all others who might know their secret and follow in Cassim’s footsteps, they agreed to cut his body into four quarters—­to hang two on one side and two on the other, within the door of the cave.  This they did at once, and leaving the place of their hoards well closed, mounted their horses and set out to attack the caravans they might meet.

II

When night came, and Cassim did not return, his wife became very uneasy.  She ran to Ali Baba for comfort, and he told her that Cassim would certainly think it unwise to enter the town till night was well advanced.  By midnight Cassim’s wife was still more alarmed, and wept till morning, cursing her desire to pry into the affairs of her brother and sister in law.  In the early day she went again, in tears, to Ali Baba.

He did not wait for her to ask him to go and see what had happened to Cassim, but set out at once for the forest with his three asses.  Finding some blood at the door of the cave, he took it for an ill omen; but when he had spoken the words, and the door had opened, he was struck with horror at the dismal sight of his brother’s body.  He could not leave it there, and hastened within to find something to wrap around it.  Laying the body on one of his asses, he covered it with wood.  The other two asses he loaded with bags of gold, covering them also with wood as before.  Then bidding the door shut, he came away, but stopped some time at the edge of the forest, that he might not go into the town before night.  When he reached home he left the two asses, laden with gold, in his little yard for his wife to unload, and led the other to his sister-in-law’s house.

Ali Baba knocked at the door, which was opened by Morgiana, a clever slave, full of devices to conquer difficulties.  When he came into the court and unloaded the ass, he took Morgiana aside, and said to her,—­

“You must observe a strict secrecy.  Your master’s body is contained in these two panniers.  We must bury him as if he had died a natural death.  Go now and tell your mistress.  I leave the matter to your wit and skillful devices.”

They placed the body in Cassim’s house, and, charging Morgiana to act well her part, Ali Baba returned home with his ass.

Early the next morning, Morgiana went to a druggist, and asked for a sort of lozenge used in the most dangerous illness.  When he asked her for whom she wanted it, she answered with a sigh, “My good master Cassim.  He can neither eat nor speak.”  In the evening she went to the same druggist, and with tears in her eyes asked for an essence given to sick persons for whose life there is little hope.  “Alas!” said she, “I am afraid even this will not save my good master.”