your courage? Had you died with your sabres in your hands, like brave men, my regret had been less! When shall I get such a gallant troop again? And if I could, can I undertake it without exposing so much gold and treasure to him who has already enriched himself out of it? I cannot, I ought not to think of it, before I have taken away his life. I will undertake that myself which I could not accomplish with powerful assistance; and when I have taken care to secure this treasure from being pillaged, I will provide for it new masters and successors after me, who shall preserve and augment it to all posterity.' This resolution being taken, he became easy in his mind, and, full of hope, he slept all that night very quietly.
When he woke early the next morning as he had proposed, he dressed himself in accordance with the project he had in his head, went down to the town, and took a lodging in a khan. And as he expected that what had happened at Ali Baba's might make a great noise in the town, he asked his host, casually, what news there was in the city. Upon which the innkeeper told him a great many things which did not concern him in the least. He judged by this that the reason why Ali Baba kept the affair so secret was lest people should find out where the treasure lay, and the means of getting at it. And this urged him the more to neglect nothing which might rid himself of so dangerous a person.
The next thing that the captain had to do was to provide himself with a horse, and to convey a great many sorts of rich stuffs and fine linen to his lodging, which he did by a great many journeys to the forest, with all the precautions imaginable to conceal the place whence he brought them. In order to dispose of the merchandize when he had amassed it together, he took a furnished shop, which happened to be opposite to Cassim's, which Ali Baba's son had not long occupied.
He took upon him the name of Cogia Houssain, and, as a new comer, was, according to custom, extremely civil and complaisant to all the merchants his neighbours. And as Ali Baba's son was young and handsome, and a man of good sense, and was often obliged to converse with Cogia Houssain, he soon introduced them to him. He strove to cultivate his friendship, more particularly
