ttle bird? Sure there are other lasses besides thyself who would
like to trade with a poor peddler who has travelled all the way from
Gruenstadt just to please the pretty ones of Trutz-Drachen."

"Nay," said the lass, in a frightened voice, "I cannot let thee in; I
know not what the Baron would do to me, even now, if he knew that I was
here talking to a stranger at the postern;" and she made as if she would
clap to the little window in his face; but the one-eyed Hans thrust his
staff betwixt the bars and so kept the shutter open.

"Nay, nay," said he, eagerly, "do not go away from me too soon. Look,
dear one; seest thou this necklace?"

"Aye," said she, looking hungrily at it.

"Then listen; if thou wilt but let me into the castle, so that I may
strike a trade, I will give it to thee for thine own without thy paying
a barley corn for it."

The girl looked and hesitated, and then looked again; the temptation was
too great. There was a noise of softly drawn bolts and bars, the door
was hesitatingly opened a little way, and, in a twinkling, the one-eyed
Hans had slipped inside the castle, pack and all.

"The necklace," said the girl, in a frightened whisper.

Hans thrust it into her hand. "It's thine," said he, "and now wilt thou
not help me to a trade?"

"I will tell my sister that thou art here," said she, and away she ran
from the little stone hallway, carefully bolting and locking the further
door behind her.

The door that the girl had locked was the only one that connected the
postern hail with the castle.

The one-eyed Hans stood looking after her. "Thou fool!" he muttered to
himself, "to lock the door behind thee. What shall I do next, I should
like to know? Here am I just as badly off as I was when I stood outside
the walls. Thou hussy! If thou hadst but let me into the castle for only
two little minutes, I would have found somewhere to have hidden myself
while thy back was turned. But what shall I do now?" He rested his pack
upon the floor and stood looking about him.

Built in the stone wall opposite to him, was a high, narrow fireplace
without carving of any sort. As Hans' one eye wandered around the bare
stone space, his glance fell at last upon it, and there it rested. For
a while he stood looking intently at it, presently he began rubbing his
hand over his bristling chin in a thoughtful, meditative manner. Finally
he drew a deep breath, and giving himself a shake as though to arouse
himself from