Page:Arabian Nights (Sterrett).djvu/291

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sented himself, and his offer being accepted, he went to Baba Mustapha, as the first had done; and being shown the house, marked it in a place more remote from sight, with red chalk.

Not long after, Morgiana, whose eyes nothing could escape, went out, and seeing the red chalk, and arguing with herself as she had done before, marked the other neighbors’ houses in the same place and manner.

The robber, on his return to his company, boasted of the precaution he had taken, which he looked upon as an infallible way of distinguishing Ali Baba’s house from the others; and the captain and all of them thought with him. They entered the town with the same precaution as before; but when the robber and his captain came to the street, they were met by the same difficulty; at which the captain was enraged, and the robber in as great confusion as his predecessor.

Thus the captain and his troop were forced to retire a second time, and much more dissatisfied; while the robber who had been the author of the mistake underwent the same punishment, which he willingly submitted to.

The captain, having lost two brave fellows of his troop, was afraid of diminishing it too much by pursuing this plan to find the residence of their plunderer. He therefore resolved to take upon himself the important commission.

Accordingly, he went to Baba Mustapha, who did him the same service he had done the other robbers. But the captain

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