The horsemen, young, active, and doughty riders, came close up to
the rock face and all dismounted, whereat Ali Baba took good note of
them, and soon he was fully persuaded by their mien and demeanor
that they were a troop of highwaymen who, having fallen upon a
caravan, had despoiled it and carried off the spoil and brought
their booty to this place with intent of concealing it safely in
some cache. Moreover, he observed that they were forty in number.
Ali Baba saw the robbers, as soon as they came under the tree, each
unbridle his horse and hobble it. Then all took off their
saddlebags, which proved to he full of gold and silver. The man who
seemed to he the captain presently pushed forward, load on shoulder,
through thorns and thickets, till he came up to a certain spot,
where he uttered these strange words: "Open, Sesame!" And forthwith
appeared a wide doorway in the face of the rock. The robbers went
in, and last of all their chief, and then the portal shut of itself.
Long while they stayed within the cave whilst Ali Baba was
constrained to abide perched upon the tree, reflecting that if he came
down, peradventure the band might issue forth that very moment and
seize him and slay him.
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