dusk when Master Ulsenius came and broke off our
discourse. He had come forth in part to see Eppelein, and presently,
when a lamp was brought, as we stood by the faithful lad he called me by
name, and then Uncle Conrad, and said that albeit he was weary of limb
he was easy and comfortable; that he felt a smart now and then, and in
especial about his neck, yet that troubled him but little, inasmuch as
that it plainly showed him that the thought which had haunted him, that
he was really killed and in a darksome hell, was but a horrible dream.

Then when he had spoken thus much, with great pains, his pale face
turned red on a sudden, and again he asked, as he had many times in his
sickness, where was his master's letter. Hereupon I hastily told him
that we had hunted down the robbers and rescued it, and it was a joy
to see how much comfort and delight this was to him. And when he had
swallowed a good cup of strong Malvoisie, he could sit up, and enquired
if the Baron von Im Hoff were minded to satisfy the Sultan's over-great
demand. And to this I replied, to give him easement, that we had good
reason to hope so. And was his mind now clear enough to enable him to
remember how great a sum was demanded for ransom?

He smiled craftily, and said that even as a dead man he could scarce
have forgotten that, by reason that he had muttered the words to himself
on his way oftener than any old monk mumbles his Paternoster. And when
Uncle Conrad laughed and bid him jestingly repeat it, he said, like a
school boy who is sure of his task: "For Master Herdegen Schopper, slave
of the said unbeliever Abou Sef--[Father of the scimitar]--in the armory
of Sultan Burs Bey in the Castle of Cairo, a ransom is demanded of
twenty-four thousand Venice sequins. George--Christina! Death and fire
on the head of the misbelieving wretch!"

When we heard this we all believed that he had of a surety been wrong as
to the sum or the coin, likewise we thought his last strange words were
due to a wandering mind; howbeit, we were soon to learn that verily his
tidings were the truth. He forthwith went on to say with some pains that
his master had made him to use a means by which he might remember the
number from all others in case, by ill-hap, the letter should be lost.
And on this wise he gave us to know for certain that the vast sum
demanded was not an error on his part. It was to this end that he had
stamped on his memory the names of Saint George and Saint