til the time comes when I may think it worth my while to
throw away my life, in order to secure your death, Ben Soloman."

"It is of no use talking like that," the Jew said quietly. "We are
useful to each other. I have saved your life from the gibbet, you
have done the work I required. Between us, it is worse than
childish to threaten in the present matter. I do not doubt that you
will do your business well, and you know that you will be well paid
for it; what can either of us require more?"

Charlie would have given a good deal to understand the
conversation, and he would have been specially glad to learn that
Stanislas had escaped with his life; for he had taken a great fancy
to the young Lithuanian, and was grieved by the thought that he had
probably lost his life in his defence.

Three days passed. His head was now clear, and his appetite
returning, and he found, by quietly moving at night, when his guard
was asleep, that he was gaining strength. The third day, there was
some talking among several men who entered the room; then he was
lifted, wrapt up in some cloths, and put into a large box. He felt
this being hoisted up, it was carried downstairs, and then placed
on something. A minute afterwards he felt a vibration, followed by
a swaying and bumping, and guessed at once that he was on a cart,
and was being removed, either to prison or to some other place of
confinement. The latter he considered more probable.

The journey was a long one. He had no means of judging time, but he
thought that it must have lasted two or three hours. Then the
rumbling ceased, the box was lifted down, and carried a short
distance, then the lid was opened and he was again laid down on
some straw. He heard the sound of cart wheels, and knew that the
vehicle on which he had been brought was being driven away.

He was now so hungry that he felt he could no longer maintain the
appearance of insensibility. Two men were talking in the room, and
when, for a moment, their conversation ceased, he gave a low groan,
and then opened his eyes. They came at once to his bedside, with
exclamations of satisfaction.

"How do you feel?" one asked in Swedish.

"I do not know," he said in a low tone. "Where am I, how did I get
here?"

"You are with friends. Never mind how you got here. You have been
ill, but you will soon get well again. Someone hit you on the head,
and we picked you up and brought you here."

"I am weak and faint," Charlie murm