“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?”