s, which the robbers easily entered,
they transacted the business in much less time than they would
otherwise have required.

The Hermit's Pupil was very active, climbing into and out of houses
with great agility. He obtained his answers quite as easily as did
the others, but whenever he left a house there was a shade of
disappointment upon his features. Among the last places that he
visited was a room in which two boys were sleeping. He awoke them and
asked the usual question. While they were trembling in their bed, not
knowing what to answer, the Pupil drew his sword and exclaimed:
"Come, now, no prevarication; you know it's fishing-tackle. Speak
out!" Each of the boys then promptly declared it was fishing-tackle,
and the pupil left, greatly gratified. "I was very much afraid," he
said to himself, "that not a person in my district would say
fishing-tackle; and I am glad to think that there were two boys who
had sense enough to like something that is really interesting."

It was nearly daylight when the work was finished; and then the band
gathered together in an appointed place on the outside of the city,
where the Stranger awaited them. Each of the men had an excellent
memory, which was necessary in their profession, and they repeated to
the Stranger all the objects and subjects that had been mentioned to
them, and he wrote them down upon tablets.

The next night, accompanied by the band, he proceeded to the castle
of the magician, the great gate of which was silently opened for them
by the Weirds. When they were ushered into the magician's room,
Alfrarmedj took the tablets from the Stranger and examined them
carefully.

"All these things should make a very complete collection," he said,
"and I think I have specimens of the various objects in my
interminable vaults." He then called his Weirds and, giving one of
them the tablets, told him to go with his companions into the vaults
and gather enough of the things therein mentioned to fill a large
museum. In half an hour the Weirds returned and announced that the
articles were ready in the great court-yard.

"Go, then," said the magician, "and assist these men to carry them to
the Queen's museum."

The Stranger then heartily thanked Alfrarmedj for the assistance he
had given; and the band, accompanied by a number of Weirds, proceeded
to carry the objects of interest to the Queen's museum. It was a
strange procession. Half a dozen Weirds carried a stuffed mammoth,