ir hearts, in token of
respectful greeting.

'Must I suffer this from people whom I have commanded?' angrily
exclaimed Mac Donalbain. 'You have held out like heroes, against men
and elements, and do you now, equivocate like common thieves from a
miserable fear of death? Know that I have disclosed everything to the
court, and further, that I will freely answer every question they can
put to me. Do you wish to give the lie to your captain?'

'God forbid!' stammered one of the band. 'We should be disgraced for
life!' cried another; and the former speaker, who by this time had
risen from the floor, cried, 'let your crook-backed secretary nib his
pen afresh, sir judge. We will now sing the song that you lords will
but too willingly hear from such poor devils as we. Write! Everything
that our captain has confessed is true from the beginning to the end.'

'Well now,' cried Megret, who could restrain himself no longer; 'you
see that you may now, if you please, repay your captain for all the
misfortunes he has brought upon you. The sinful ties which connected
you with him are cut asunder, and you have no reason to spare him in
the least. So tell the court freely and frankly--'who murdered the
traveler on the road to Lulea?'

'That,' answered the robber with eagerness and proud satisfaction, 'was
done by a brace of gallows-birds who did not belong to our band, but
marauded on their own account, and we beg not to be confounded with
them. Had we caught them we should ourselves have hung them upon the
nearest tree; for we could not with indifference have permitted such
good-for-nothing fellows to injure our reputation.'

'And who killed the poor Laplander, who was found hung upon the
fir-tree before the entrance to your den?' asked the judge.

'Red Hialf,' answered the prisoner; 'but without orders. In consequence
of which our captain arrested him, and on the morning when we were
attacked, he was to have had his trial. He must have been found locked
up in the vault of the second tower.'

'That place was not searched!' cried Arwed, with a shudder.

'He must have been blown into the air with the tower,' said Megret.
'There can be no question of it.'

'You must now be convinced,' said Christine, approaching the judge,
'that my husband is innocent of every murderous deed. Can you now give
me any hope for him?'

'I should consider it great presumption to give you any,' answered the
judge, 'and unjust to withhold it entirely.