Page:Fairy tales from the Arabian nights.djvu/351

 candles. What to do she did not know, for the broth must be made.

Abdalla, seeing her very uneasy, said, 'Do not fret and tease yourself, but go into the yard and take some oil out of one of the jars.'

Morgiana thanked Abdalla for his advice, and he went to bed, when she took the oil-pot and went into the yard, and as she came near the first jar, the robber within said softly, 'Is it time?'

Though the robber spoke low, Morgiana was struck with the voice, the more because the captain, when he unloaded the mules, opened this and all the other jars, to give air to his men, who were cramped and ill at ease.

Any other slave but Morgiana, surprised to find a man in a jar, instead of the oil she wanted, would have made such a noise as to have given an alarm, which would have been attended with evil consequences; whereas Morgiana, apprehending immediately the importance of keeping the secret, and the danger Ali Baba, his family, and she herself were in, and the necessity of taking quiet action at once, collected herself without showing the least alarm, and answered, 'Not yet, but presently.' She went in this manner to all the jars, giving the same answer, till she came to the jar of oil.

By this means Morgiana found out that her master, Ali Baba, who thought that he had entertained an oil-merchant, had admitted thirty-eight robbers into his house, with this pretended merchant as their captain. She made what haste she could to fill her oil-pot, and returned into her kitchen; where as soon as she had lighted the lamp, she took a great kettle, and went again to the oil jar, filled the kettle, and set it on a great wood fire to boil. As soon as it boiled, she went and poured enough into every jar to stifle and destroy the robber within.

When this action, worthy of the courage of Morgiana, was executed without any noise, as she had intended, she returned to the kitchen with the empty kettle, and shut the door; and having put out the great fire she had made to boil the oil, and leaving just enough to make the broth, put out also the lamp, and remained silent; resolving not to go to bed till she had observed