" So he straightway asked of the keeper of
the khan, "What strange things have happened in the city during the
last few days?" And the other told him all that he had seen and heard,
but the captain could not learn a whit of that which most concerned
him. Hereby he understood that Ali Baba was ware and wise, and that he
had not only carried away such store of treasure, but he had also
destroyed so many lives and withal had come off scatheless.
Furthermore, that he himself must needs have all his wits alert not to
fall into the hands of his foe and perish.
With this resolve the captain hired a shop in the bazaar, whither he
bore whole bales of the finest stuffs and goodly merchandise from
his forest treasure house, and presently he took his seat within the
store and fell to doing merchant's business. By chance his place
fronted the booth of the defunct Kasim, where his son, Ali Baba's
nephew, now traded, and the captain, who called himself Khwajah Hasan,
soon formed acquaintance and friendship with the shopkeepers around
about him and treated all with profuse civilities. But he was
especially gracious and cordial to the son of Kasim, a handsome
youth and a well-dressed, and ofttimes he would sit and chat with
him for a long while.
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