?"

"The receiver is as bad as the thief. If they catch him...."

"He'll be put in the stocks for a week. That's the worst that can befall
him."

"No, no. Let me alone,--or I'll tell Adam what you're plotting...."

"Then I'll denounce you first, you gallows' fruit, you rogue, you
poacher. They've suspected you a long time! Will you change your mind
now, you blockhead?"

"Yes, yes; but Ulrich is here too, and the boy is as dear to me as my
own child."

"I'll come here later, say that no vehicle can be had, and take him away
with me. When it's all over, I'll let him go."

"Then I'll keep him. He already helps me as much, as if he were a grown
man. Oh, dear, dear! The Jew, the gentle man, and the poor women, and
the little girl, Ruth...."

"Big Jews and little Jews, nothing more. You've told me yourself, how
the Hebrews were persecuted in your dead father's day. So we'll go
shares. There's a light in the room still. You'll detain them. Count
Frohlinger has been at his hunting-box since last evening.... If they
insist on moving forward, guide them to the village."

"And I've been an honest man all my life," whined the poacher, and then
continued, threateningly: "If you harm a hair on Ulrich's head...."

"Fool that you are! I'll willingly leave the big feeder to you. Go in
now, then I'll come and fetch the boy. There's money at stake--fifteen
florins!" Fifteen minutes after, Jorg entered the hut.

The smith and the doctor believed the charcoal-burner, when he told them
that all the vehicles in the village were in use, but he would find
one elsewhere. They must let the boy go with him, to enquire at the
farm-houses in another village. Somebody would doubtless be found to
risk his horses. The lad looked like a young nobleman, and the peasants
would take earnest-money from him. If he, Jorg, should show them
florins, it would get him into a fine scrape. The people knew he was as
poor as a beggar.

The smith asked the poacher's opinion, and the latter growled:

"That will, doubtless, be a good plan."

He said no more, and when Adam held out his hand to the boy, and kissed
him on the forehead, and the doctor bade him an affectionate farewell,
Marx called himself a Judas, and would gladly have flung the tempting
florins to the four winds, but it was too late.

The smith and Lopez heard him call anxiously to Jorg: "Take good care of
the boy!" And when Adam patted him on the shoulder, saying: "You are a
faithful fe