“When I considered that there were thirty seven robbers in the yard, who only waited for a signal to be given by the captain, whom you took to be an oil-merchant, and entertained so handsomely, I thought there was no time to be lost; I carried my pot of oil into the kitchen, lighted the lamp, afterwards took the biggest kettle I had, went and filled it full of oil, set it on the fire to boil, and then poured as much into each jar as was sufficient to prevent them from executing the pernicious design they had meditated:  after this I retired into the kitchen, and put out the lamp; but before I went to bed, waited at the window to know what measures the pretended merchant would take.

“After I had watched some time for the signal, he threw some stones out of the window against the jars, but neither hearing nor perceiving any body stirring, after throwing three times, he came down, when I saw him go to every jar, after which, through the darkness of the night, I lost sight of him.  I waited some time longer, and finding that he did not return, doubted not but that, seeing he had missed his aim, he had made his escape over the walls of the garden.  Persuaded that the house was now safe, I went to bed.

“This,” said Morgiana, “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 shews 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 by averting the danger which threatened me, will deliver the world from their persecution and their cursed race.  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.”