THE FORTY THIEVES 243

out 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 shows 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 acknowledg-
ment, 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