the man who had spoken to charlie drew the long knife from the back of the jew, wiped it on the grass, and handed it to him.

"that ought to be your property," he said. "it has done you good service."

not sorry to have a weapon in addition to his cudgel, charlie placed it in his belt, and then started with the bandits. he would not have cared to face the charcoal burner alone; but now that the band regarded him as enrolled among their number, he felt no uneasiness respecting him.

when they issued from the trees, the jew was seen standing at the door of the hut. he at once ran in on seeing them, and came out again, accompanied by the charcoal burner, who carried his axe on his shoulder. the jew started, on catching sight of charlie among the ranks of the brigands, and said a word or two to his companion.

"well, master charcoal burner," the leader of the party said, "how is it that honest woodmen consort with rogues of the town?"

"i don't know that they do so, willingly," the man said gruffly. "but some of us, to our cost, have put our heads into nooses, and the rogues of the town have got hold of the other end of the ropes, and we must just walk as we are told to."

"well, that is true enough," the brigand said.

"and 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 traders belong, and the jew had reason to think that i was acquainted with the design, and could give the names of those concerned in it. there was really no plot against augustus, but it was only intended that a popular demonstration against his rule should be made. but soloman wanted me to give evidence that there was a conspiracy against the king's life, so that he might gain great credit by exposing it, and might at the same time rid himself of many of his rivals in the trade."

"he was an artful fox," the leader of the brigands said, when this had been translated to him. "but where is the jew he put over you?"

three or four of the men sprang to their feet and ran out, but the jew was nowhere to be seen. the captain was furious, and abused his men right and left, while his anger was in no way mitigated when one of them told him that, if he had wanted the jew kept, he should have given one of them orders to look after him. this was so evident that the chief was silenced for a moment.

"how long is it since any of you saw him last?"

"he went round with the wineskin, and filled our cups just as we sat down to breakfast," one of the men said. "i have not noticed him since."

nor had any of the others.

"then it will be no use to pursue. he has had more than half an hour's start, and long before this he will have mounted ben soloman's horse, and have ridden off.

"well, comrade," he said, turning to charlie, "this settles your movements. i was but half in earnest before as to your joining us; but it is clear now that there's nothing else for you to do, for the present. this fellow will, directly he gets to warsaw, denounce you as the murderer of his master. that he is sure to do to avert suspicion from himself, and, if you were to return there, it would go hard with you. so, for a time, you must throw in your lot with us."

when this was translated to charlie, he saw at once the force of the argument. he could not have denied that the jew had fallen in a hand-to-hand struggle with himself, and, were he to appear in warsaw, he might be killed by the co-religionists of ben soloman; or, if he escaped this, might lie in a dungeon for months awaiting his trial, and perhaps be finally executed. there was nothing for him now but to rejoin the swedes, and it would be some time, yet, before he would be sufficiently recovered to undertake such a journey.

"i should not mind, if i could send a letter to allan ramsay, to tell him what has befallen me. he will be thinking i am dead, and will, at any rate, be in great anxiety about me."

"i have taken a liking to you, young fellow," the leader said, "and will send in one of my men to warsaw with a letter; that is, if you can write one."

"yes, i can write. fortunately there are paper, pen, and an ink horn on that shelf. ben soloman brought them the last time he came, to write down the lies he wanted me to testify to. i am greatly obliged to you, and will do it at once."

as he had, only the day before he was attacked, sent off a messenger to count piper, telling him all he had done the previous week, there was no occasion to repeat this, and he had only to give an account of his capture, and the events that had since occurred.

"you see," he said, "i cannot return to warsaw. the jew who was here unfortunately heard that it was in a struggle with me ben soloman was killed, and he will, of course, denounce me as his murderer, though the deed was done in fair fight. i should have all his tribe against me, and might be imprisoned for months awaiting trial. i am still very weak, and could not attempt the journey to the frontier. i am, however, gaining strength, and, as soon as i am quite recovered, i shall take the first opportunity of leaving the men i am with, and making for the swedish camp. please forward this news by a sure hand to count piper, and express my sorrow that my mission has not been completed, although, indeed, i do not think that my further stay at warsaw would have been any great service, for it is clear that the great majority of the traders will not move in the matter until the swedes advance, and, from their point of view, it is not to their interest to do so.

"i know but little of the men i am with at present, beyond the fact that they are bandits, nor can i say whether they are disbanded soldiers, or criminals who have escaped from justice; but at any rate they show me no ill will. i have no doubt i shall be able to get on fairly with them, until i am able to make my escape. i wish i had poor stanislas with me. only one of the men here speaks swedish, and he does not know very much of the language. i cannot say, at present, whether the twenty men here are the whole of the band, or whether they are only a portion of it. nor do i know whether the men subsist by plundering the peasants, or venture on more serious crimes. thanking you for your great kindness during 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, have been abandoned a very long time, as trees of considerable size grew among the low walls and piles of stones that marked where cottages had stood. the place occupied by the brigands had, in former times, been a castellated building of some strength, standing on a knoll in the middle of the village, which had probably been inhabited by the retainers of its owner. part of the wall had fallen, but a large arched room, that had doubtless been the banqueting hall of the castle, remained almost intact, and here the brigands had established themselves. several fires burned on the flagged floors, the smoke finding its way out through holes and crevices in the roof. some fifty men were gathered round these, and were occupied in cooking their midday meal.

"i am glad to see that you have arrived," the captain said, coming across to charlie. "i expected you two hours ago, and intended, as soon as we had finished our meal, to send out another four men to meet you and help to carry you in."

"thank you," charlie said. "it is not the men's fault we are late, but the last part of the way we came on very slowly. i was getting so exhausted that i had to stop every few hundred yards."

"well, you had better eat something, and then lie down for a sleep. meat is plentiful with us, for there are thousands of goats in the forest, and occasionally we get a deer or wild boar. if we had but bread and wine we should live like nobles. our supplies, however, are low at present, and we shall have to make an expedition, tomorrow or next day, to replenish them."

charlie ate a few mouthfuls of meat, and then lay down and slept, for some hours, on a bed of leaves. he was awoke by loud and excited talking among the men, and learnt from honred that one of the men, who had been left on watch at the mouth of the path by which he had entered the forest, had just brought in the news that a party of a hundred infantry, led by the jew, had arrived with a cart. in this the body of ben soloman had been sent off, while the troops had established themselves in the little clearing round the hut.

"this comes of letting that jew escape," the captain said. "no doubt he told the story his own way, and the jewish traders went to the governor and asked that troops should be sent to root us out. well, they are far enough away at present, and i have sent off to have their movements watched. it is a good nine miles, from here to the hut, and they may look for a week before they find this place, unless that rascally jew has heard of it from the woodman, or they get hold of the fellow himself, though i should think they will hardly do that. i fancy he has some cause of quarrel with the authorities, and will not put himself in the way of being questioned closely, if he can help it."

the next morning when charlie awoke, two men were standing beside him. his eyes first fell on the one who had been to the town, and who held a large bundle in his hand. then he turned his eyes to the other, and gave an exclamation of pleasure, as he saw that it was stanislas. he looked pale and weak, and was evidently just recovering from a severe illness.

"why, stanislas!" he exclaimed. "this is a pleasure, indeed. i never for a moment dreamt of seeing you. i heard from the jew who guarded me that you got away, but i was afraid that you had been badly wounded. why, my brave fellow, what brings you here?"

"i have come to be with your honour," the man said. "it was, of course, my duty to be by your side. i was very ill for a week, for i had half a dozen wounds, but i managed, after the assailants left me, to crawl back to mr. ramsay's to tell him what had happened. i don't remember much about the next few days. since then i have been mending rapidly. none of the wounds were very serious, and it was more loss of blood, than anything else, that ailed me. mr. ramsay searched high and low for you, and we had all given you up for dead, till a few hours before this man arrived with your letter.

"we heard you had killed ben soloman. i had a long talk with your messenger, who received a handsome present from mr. ramsay, and he agreed to conduct me here, upon my solemn promise that, if the captain would not receive me, i would not give any information, on my return, as to the whereabouts of the band. mr. ramsay hired a light cart, and that brought us yesterday far into the forest. we camped there, and i had not more than a couple of miles to walk to get here this morning."

"have you seen the captain?" charlie asked eagerly.

"yes. i was stopped by some sentries, a quarter of a mile away, and was kept there while my guide came on and got permission of the captain for me to be brought in. when i met him, i had no great difficulty in persuading him to let me stop, for mr. ramsay had given me fifty rix-dollars to give him; and so, your honour, here i am, and here is a letter from mr. ramsay himself."

"i cannot tell you how glad i am to have you, stanislas. i am getting better, but i am so weak that i took five hours, yesterday, to get six miles. now i have got you to talk to, i shall pick up strength faster than i have been doing, for it has been very dull work having no one who could understand me. there is only one man here who understands a word of swedish."

"we will soon get you round, sir, never fear. i have brought with me four casks of wine. they were left at the place where the cart stopped last night, but the captain has sent off men already to bring them in. you will be all the better for a suit of clean clothes."

"that i shall. it is a month now since i had a change, and my jerkin is all stained with blood. i want a wash more than anything; for there was no water near the hut, and the charcoal burner used to bring in a small keg from a spring he passed on his way to his work. that was enough for drinking, but not enough for washing--a matter which never seemed to have entered into his head, or that of the jew, as being in the slightest degree necessary."

"there is a well just outside," stanislas said. "i saw them drawing water in buckets as we came in. i suppose it was the well of this castle, in the old time."

"i will go and have a wash, and change my clothes the first thing," charlie said. "mr. ramsay's letter will keep till after that."

they went out to the well together.

"so you heard the story, that i had killed ben soloman, before you left?"

"yes; before your letter arrived, mr. ramsay sent for me, and told me a jewish trader had just informed him that news had come that ben soloman had been murdered, and the deed had been done by the young scotchman who had been with him. mr. ramsay did not believe the story in the slightest. he admitted that ben soloman might have been murdered, and even said frankly that, hated as he was, it was the most natural end for him to come to; but that you should have done so was, he said, absurd. in the first place, he did not think that you were alive; and in the second, it was far more probable that you had been murdered by ben soloman, than that he should have been murdered by you.

"however, even before your letter came, three or four hours later, there seemed no longer any doubt that you had killed the jew. by that time, there was quite an uproar among his people. he was the leader of their community, and had dealings with so many nobles that his influence was great; and, although he was little liked, he was regarded as an important person, and his loss was a very heavy one to the jewish community. a deputation went to the governor, and we heard that troops would be at once sent out to capture you, and the band of brigands you had joined. mr. ramsay told me that it was fortunate, indeed, that you had not returned to the city. but, no doubt, he has told you all that in the letter."

"i feel quite another man, stanislas," charlie said, when he had changed his garments. "now i can read the letter you brought me."

after expressing the great satisfaction he felt, at the news that charlie was alive, mr. ramsay went on to say that, even were he well, he could not return to warsaw in the present state of public feeling.

"your story that you were attacked, grievously wounded, and, after being confined here for some days, carried away and confined in the wood, by order of ben soloman, and that he visited you there, would be treated with derision. the version given by the man who brought in the story of the jew's death was that he himself was staying in the cottage of a charcoal burner, an acquaintance of his, and that a party of brigands, of whom you were one, arrived there, and that they were boasting of having caused the death of ben soloman, who had fallen by your hand. he managed to escape from the brigands, and on the road found the dead body of his employer, who was, he knew, that morning coming out to give him some instructions. my opinion, and that of my friends who knew you, was that the fellow had himself killed and robbed his master; but your letter, of course, showed that his account was true to some extent--that ben soloman had fallen in a struggle with you, and that you yourself were a prisoner in the hands of these bandits. still, as it would be next to impossible for you to prove the truth of your story, and as the jews of the place, who are numerous and influential, are dead against you, your life would certainly be forfeited were you to be captured.

"i know your story to be true, but it would appear wildly improbable, to others, that this wealthy jew should have conspired, in the first place, to cause an attack to be made upon an unknown young stranger, still less that he should have had him carried off to the forest, and should have gone to visit him there. the explanation that you were a swedish officer in disguise would not benefit you in any way, while it would involve us who knew you in your danger, and would cause the jew to be regarded as a man who had lost his life in endeavouring to unmask a plot against poland. therefore, i think it is extremely fortunate that you are, for the present, safe in the hands of these brigands, and should certainly advise you to make no attempt to leave them, until you are perfectly well and strong.

"i have, as you directed me, hidden a few pieces of gold in your shoe, and have handed the rest of your money to your man, who is starting to join you. he will conceal it about him. i have just heard that a body of troops are starting at once for the forest, and that orders have been sent to other towns, to send detachments into it at different points, so it is evident the authorities are determined to catch you, if possible. if you had killed half a dozen traders in a smaller way, they would have cared little about it; but just at present, pressed as the king is by want of money, he is bound to do everything he can to please the jewish traders, as it is upon them that he must rely for loans for the payment of his troops.

"in this matter, then, he will leave no stone unturned to gratify them, and i should strongly advise your band to move away from the neighbourhood, at any rate for a time. they may plunder whole villages with impunity, but what is regarded as the murder of the richest citizen of warsaw, a man mixed up in business and politics with half the principal nobles of the land, is a different matter altogether. do not think of trying to traverse the country until you are perfectly strong. it will be a dangerous business at the best, but with your man with you, to bear the brunt of replying to questions, i have every confidence that you will succeed in making your way through. as to this, i can give no advice, as there is no saying as to the point from which you may start, or the directions in which you may travel.

"should you, at any time, find yourself in a town in which there are any of my countrymen established in trade, and you will find them nearly everywhere, use my name. i think it is pretty generally known to scotchmen in poland. you will see i have inclosed a note that will be useful to you."

the inclosure contained only a few words:

"i, allan ramsay, merchant of warsaw, do declare the bearer of this note to be my friend, and beg any countrymen of mine, to whom he may present himself, to assist him in every way, and, should he require money, to furnish him with it, i undertaking to make myself responsible for the same, and to pay all monies and other charges that he may incur."

"the first thing to do," charlie said, as he placed the letters in his doublet, "is to let the leader of our band know that other bodies of troops, besides that at the hut, are about to enter the forest. he may decide that it is necessary to march away at once."

as soon, indeed, as the outlaw received the tidings, he issued orders for the band to prepare for instant departure.

"a party of five or six men together," he said to charlie, "might hide in this forest for years. but a band of fifty is too large to be long concealed. to begin with, they must get food, and must either buy it or hunt for it; and in the second, there are a considerable number of men living in the forest, charcoal burners and herders of goats and swine, and any of these, if questioned by the troops, might mention that they had seen a considerable number of men passing. as it is, we will break up into parties of seven or eight, and appoint a rendezvous where we may meet again."

the band was speedily mustered, for, with the exception of those who were watching the forest through which the troops at the hut must march to reach them, the whole were close at hand. a messenger was sent off to call in the scouts. then the booty that had been taken during their late excursions was brought out, and emptied on the ground. it consisted of money and jewellery. it was divided into equal portions, of which each member took one, the lieutenants of the band two, and the captain three.

"you don't share this time," the latter said to charlie; "but next time, of course, you and your comrade will each have your portion."

when this was done, the men were told off in parties of six or seven, and instructions given as to the point of rendezvous. each band chose its own leader, and, in an hour from the reception of the news, the place was deserted, and the parties were making their way in different directions through the forest.

charlie and stanislas formed part of the captain's own force, which numbered ten in all.

"do you think they will all turn up at the meeting place?" charlie asked the leader, whose name he now ascertained was ladislas koffski.

"they may," he said. "but it is seldom that bands, when they once disperse like this, ever come together again. it is impossible to content everyone, and any man who is chosen leader of a party may, if he is dissatisfied, persuade those with him to join some other band. even if they do not go in a body, many are sure to break off and make for their homes, to enjoy the booty they have gathered.

"but, upon the other hand, as we go we shall gather up fresh recruits. with so many disbanded soldiers and discontented men roaming the country, there is no difficulty in getting as many men as one cares to keep together.

"fifty is the outside that is advisable, for with more, even if one makes a good haul, it comes to so little, a head, that the men are dissatisfied. of course they work in small parties, but this does not succeed so well as when a small band are under a single leader."

"how long have you been at this work?"

"since last autumn."

"and you find it pay?"

"we do not get much in money. as you saw, there were but four rix dollars a head, and that is the result of a month's work. still, that is not bad for men who might otherwise starve. sometimes we do worse and sometimes better, but that is about the average. still, the life is a pleasant one, and unless we disbanded soldiers took to it, what would there be for us to do? if government would keep us on regular pay, there would soon be no brigands left, except the men who have escaped from justice. but the treasury is empty, and, even at the best of times, the troops are badly and irregularly paid, and are forced to plunder to keep life together. they are almost in rags, and though we poles do not mind fighting, there is generally a difficulty in getting sufficient infantry. as for the cavalry, they are nobles, and draw no pay.

"how do you feel today?"

"better. the night's rest, and a wash and change of clothes this morning, have made me feel another man. how far do you intend to march?"

"we shall go slowly for a day or two. the other parties have all pushed on ahead fast, but by taking matters quietly, and by keeping a sharp lookout, we need have no great fear of being surprised. i know the forest well, and its thickest hiding places, so we can afford to travel slowly, and as you become accustomed to it you will be able to make longer journeys."

for ten days they travelled through the forest, increasing their distance daily, as charlie regained his strength. the last day or two they did not make less than twenty miles a day. their faces were turned steadily east. occasionally they passed large tracts of cleared land, villages, and cultivated fields. at some of these they stopped and replenished their stock of flour, which they took without paying for it, but did no farther damage.

of meat they had abundance. two or three men started each day as soon as they halted, and, in a short time, returned with a goat or young pig.

"we are now close to the bug river," ladislas said at their last halting place. "tomorrow we shall meet some, at least, of our comrades. i do not expect a great many, for we were pretty equally divided as to the direction we should travel in. practically, we were safe from pursuit when we had gone fifteen miles, for the forest there spreads out greatly, and those in search of us would know that further pursuit would be useless. many of my men did not care about going farther, but all this part of the country has been so harried, for the last two or three years, that we thought it best to try altogether new ground. when we have crossed the bug we shall be beyond the forest, but there are great swamps and morasses, and hills with patches of wood. many streams take their rise there, all meeting farther on, and forming the dnieper. we must keep north of that river, for to the south the country is thinly populated, and we should have difficulty in maintaining ourselves."

charlie made no comment, but he was glad to hear that the band intended to keep to the north of the dnieper, for that river would have formed a serious obstacle to his making his way to rejoin the swedes. the next day, they reached the bank of the bug, and, following the river down, came after an hour's walking upon a great fire, round which fifteen men were stretched. these, as the captain's party approached, rose to their feet with a shout of welcome.

"that is better than i expected," ladislas said, as they came up to them. "five and twenty is quite enough for work here. in the forests one can do with more, but, moving steadily on, as we mean to do, till we get pretty near the eastern frontier, five and twenty is ample. it is enough, when together, to surprise a village; and it is not too many, travelling in twos and threes, to attract attention. things always go on better, too, after a dispersal. many who are discontented, or who want to command a band of their own, break off, and one starts fresh, with just the men one likes best to keep."

"we had begun to give you up, captain," one of the men said, as he joined the other party. "we have been here six days."

"we travelled but slowly, at first, and it is only the last two days we have really made fair journeys; but there was no reason for any great haste. the world is all our own, and, at any rate, as long as we were in the forest, there was no fear of wanting food.

"so i see some of our comrades have left us."

"we can do very well without them, captain. there were thirty of us here two days ago. essos and polinski quarrelled, and essos was killed. then polinski wanted us to elect him captain, and to move away at once. four or five, who have always been grumblers, joined him at once, and persuaded some of the others, till we were about equally divided. it came pretty nearly to a fight; but neither liked to begin, and they moved away."

"there are quite enough of us left," ladislas said. "as to essos and polinski, i am heartily glad that they have gone. i know they have both been scheming for the leadership for some time. most of the others can be very well spared, too. there are plenty of us here for travel. there is no doubt, as we agreed before starting, that there is not much more to be done in this part of the country. what with the civil wars, and the bands of soldiers without a leader, and others like ourselves who do not mean to starve, the peasants have been wrought up into a state of desperation. they have little left to lose, but what they have got they are ready to fight to the death for, and, lately, at the first alarm they have sounded the bells and assembled for miles round, and, equipped with scythes and flails, routed those who meddled with them. we had more than one hot fight, and lost many good men. besides, many of the nobles who have suffered have turned out, with their followers, and struck heavy blows at some of the bands; so that the sooner we get out of this country, which is becoming a nest of hornets, the better, for there is little booty and plenty of hard blows to be got.

"we will go on, as we agreed, till near the eastern frontier. the country is well covered with forest there, and we can sally out on which side we like, for, if there is not much gold to be had in the russian villages, there is plenty of vodka, and sometimes things worth taking in their churches. the priests and headmen, too, have generally got a little store, which can be got at with the aid of a few hot coals, or a string twisted tight enough round a thumb. at any rate we sha'n't starve; but we must move on pretty fast, for we shall have to get up a warm hut in the forest, and to lay in a stock of provisions before the winter sets in. so we must only stop to gather a little plunder when a good opportunity offers."