“What kind of a place is this?” exclaimed the Stranger, in great surprise.

“Don’t you know?” cried the Pupil, his eyes fairly sparkling with delight.  “It is a robber’s den!  Isn’t it a great thing to find a place like this?”

“A robber’s den!” exclaimed the Stranger in alarm; “let us get out of it as quickly as we can, or the robbers will return, and we shall be cut to pieces.”

“I don’t believe they are coming back very soon,” said the Pupil, “and we ought to stop and take a look at some of these things.”

“Fly, you foolish youth!” cried the Stranger; “you do not know what danger you are in.”  And, so saying, he turned to hasten away from the place.

But he was too late.  At that moment the robber captain and his band entered the cave.  When these men perceived the Stranger and the Hermit’s Pupil, they drew their swords and were about to rush upon them, when the Pupil sprang forward and, throwing up his long arms, exclaimed: 

“Stop! it is a mistake!”

At these words, the robber captain lowered his sword, and motioned to his men to halt.  “A mistake!” he said; “what do you mean by that?”

“I mean,” said the Pupil, “that I was out looking for curiosities, and wandered into this place by accident.  We haven’t taken a thing.  You may count your goods, and you will find nothing missing.  We have not even opened a box, although I very much wanted to see what was in some of them.”

“Are his statements correct?” said the Captain, turning to the Stranger.

“Entirely so,” was the answer.

“You have truthful features, and an honest expression,” said the Captain, “and I do not believe you would be so dishonorable as to creep in here during our absence and steal our possessions.  Your lives shall be spared, but you will be obliged to remain with us; for we cannot allow any one who knows our secret to leave us.  You shall be treated well, and shall accompany us in our expeditions; and if your conduct merits it, you shall in time be made full members.”

Bitterly the Stranger now regretted his unfortunate position.  He strode up and down one side of the cave, vowing inwardly that never again would he allow himself to be led by a Hermit’s Pupil.  That individual, however, was in a state of high delight.  He ran about from box to bale, looking at the rare treasures which some of the robbers showed him.

The two captives were fed and lodged very well; and the next day the Captain called them and the band together, and addressed them.

“We are now twenty-nine in number,” he said; “twenty-seven full members, and two on probation.  To-night we are about to undertake a very important expedition, in which we shall all join.  We shall fasten up the door of the cave, and at the proper time I shall tell you to what place we are going.”

An hour or two before midnight the band set out, accompanied by the Stranger and the Hermit’s Pupil; and when they had gone some miles the Captain halted them to inform them of the object of the expedition.  “We are going,” he said, “to rob the Queen’s museum.  It is the most important business we have ever undertaken.”