you, Jew, what are you doing here?"

"I am like Conrad," he replied, sulkily. "It is not only countrymen
who have their necks in a noose, and I have to do what I am
ordered."

"By a bigger rogue than yourself?"

"That is so; bigger and cleverer."

"You are expecting him here now, our new comrade tells us. Well,
you need expect him no longer. He will not come. If you will go
along the path, you will come upon his body, and may bury him if
you like to take the trouble."

An exclamation of satisfaction broke from the two men.

"You have done us a service, indeed," the charcoal burner said. "We
had thought to do it for ourselves, this morning, for after the
escape of him you call your new comrade, he would have shown us no
mercy."

"You may thank our new comrade, and not us," the brigand said. "We
only arrived on the spot when it was all over."

The Jew looked at Charlie in astonishment.

"What! Did he kill Ben Soloman?"

"That did he; or rather, the Jew killed himself. There was a
grapple hand to hand, and a wrestle. The Jew fell undermost, and
was pierced with his own knife."

"But the lad is but just out of a sickbed, and has no strength for
a struggle, and Ben Soloman, though past middle life, was strong
and active."

"Neither strong enough nor active enough," the man laughed. "You
have been nicely taken in. Who would have thought that two Jews and
a Pole would have been cheated by an English lad? His face shows
that he has been ill, and doubtless he has not yet recovered his
full strength, but he was strong enough, anyhow, to overthrow Ben
Soloman.

"Now, what have you in the hut? We are in need of provisions."

The hut was ransacked; the flour, two bottles of spirits, and a
skin of wine seized, and the meat cut up and roasted over the fire.
After the meal was eaten, the captain called upon Charlie to tell
his story more fully, and this he did, with the aid of the man who
spoke Swedish; starting, however, only at the point when he was
attacked in the street, as he felt it better to remain silent as to
his connection with the Swedish army.

"But what was the cause of Ben Soloman's hostility to you?"

"There are some in Warsaw who are of opinion that Augustus of
Saxony has done much harm to Poland, in engaging without cause in
the war against Charles of Sweden, and who think that it would be
well that he should be dethroned, and some other prince made king
in his place. To this party many of the t