“Yes,” replied the big youth, but Harry knew he didn’t.  Harry meanwhile was listening keenly to all that was passing in the forest, and he was sure that no other soldier had wandered near.  It was perhaps partly a feeling of loneliness on his own part that caused him to linger in his talk with Michael Stanislav.

“Michael,” he continued, “you appreciate our respective positions, don’t you?”

“Ah!” said Michael, in a puzzled voice.

“I’ve explained carefully to you that I’m Robin Hood, and you at the present moment represent the rich.”

“I am not rich.  Before I turn soldier I work in a mill at Bridgeport.”

“That’s all very well, but you can’t get out of it by referring to your past.  Just now you are a proxy of the rich, and it’s my duty to rob you.”

The mouth of the big fellow expanded into a wide grin.

“You won’t rob me,” he said.  “I have not a cent.”

“But I’m going to rob you just the same.  Don’t you dare to drop a hand toward the pistols in your belt.  If you do I’ll blow your head off.  I’m covering you with a double-barreled shotgun.  Each barrel contains about twenty buckshot, and at close range their blast would be so terrific that you’d make an awful looking corpse.”

“I hold up my hands a long time.  Don’t want to be any kind of a corpse.”

“That’s the good boy.  Steady now.  Don’t move a muscle.  I’m going to rob you.  It’s a brief and painless operation, much easier than pulling a tooth.”

He deftly removed the two pistols and the accompanying ammunition from the man’s belt, placing them in his own.  His belt of cartridges he put on the ground beside the fallen rifle, and then as he felt a glow of triumph he passed the well-filled knapsack from the stalwart shoulders of the other to his own shoulders, equally stalwart.

“Is everything in it first class, Michael?” he demanded with much severity.

“The best.  Our army feeds well.”

“It’s a good thing for you that it’s so.  Robin Hood is never satisfied with anything second class, and he’s likely to be offended if you offer it to him.  On the whole, Michael, I think I like you and I’m glad you came this way.  But do you care for good advice?”

“Yes, sir.”

“That’s right.  Say ‘sir’ to me.  It pleases my robber’s heart.  Then, my advice to you is never again to go into the woods alone.  All the forest looks alike to those who don’t know it, and you’re lost in a minute.  Besides, it’s filled with strange and terrible creatures, Robin Hood—­that’s me, though I have some redeeming qualities—­the Erymanthean boar, the Hydra-headed monster, Medusa of the snaky locks, Cyclops, Polyphemus with one awful eye, the deceitful Sirens, the Old Man of the Mountain, Wodin and Osiris, and, last and most terrible of all, the Baron Munchausen.”

A flicker of fear appeared in the eyes of the captive.