ng my
stay at Warsaw, I remain, yours gratefully--

"Charlie Carstairs."

While he was occupied in writing this letter, an animated
conversation was going on between the bandits. Charlie gathered
that this related to their future operations, but more than this he
could not learn. In a postscript to the letter, he requested Allan
Ramsay to hand over to the bearer some of the clothes left in his
lodgings, and to pay him for his trouble.

"As to the money I left in your hands, I do not think it worth
while for you to send it. However much these men may consider me a
comrade, I have not sufficient faith in their honesty to believe
that money would reach me safely; but, if you send me a suit of
clothes, two or three gold pieces might be wrapped up in a piece of
cloth and shoved into the toe of a shoe. The parcel must be a small
one, or there would be little chance of the man carrying it far. I
will ask him, however, to bring me a sword, if you will buy one for
me, and my pistols."

He folded up the letter and gave it to the captain. There was no
means of fastening it, but this mattered little, because, being
written in English, there was no chance of its being read. The
captain handed it to one of the men, with instructions for its
delivery. The messenger started at once. The others, after
remaining a short time in the hut, set out through the forest.

After an hour's walking, Charlie was unable to go further. The
captain, seeing this, ordered four of the men to stop with him, and
to follow the next morning. As soon as he had gone on with the rest
of the band, the men set about collecting sticks and making a fire.
Charlie, who was utterly exhausted, threw himself on the ground,
and was not long before he fell sound asleep.

When he awoke, the shades of evening were already falling, and the
men were sitting over the fire, roasting a portion of a goat, one
of a flock they had fallen in with in the wood, where large numbers
roamed about in a semi-wild state.

The man who could speak Swedish was one of those who had remained
with him, and, from him, he learnt that the present headquarters of
the band were some six miles farther away. This distance was
performed next morning, frequent halts being made to enable him to
sit down and rest; and it was not till five hours after the start
that they arrived.

Overgrown as it now was, with trees and undergrowth, he could see
that a village once stood there. It must, however,