re for you." They indicated to her, by a menacing gesture, that the
session was not ended. The chief of the band squatted down before our
spoils, called "the good old man," counted the money in his presence,
and delivered to him the sum of forty-five francs. Mrs. Simons nudged me
on the elbow. "You see," said she, "the monk and Dimitri have betrayed
us: he is dividing the spoils with them."

"No, madam," replied I, immediately. "Dimitri has received a mere
pittance from that which they had stolen from him. It is a thing which
is done everywhere. On the banks of the Rhine, when a traveler is ruined
at roulette, the conductor of the game gives him something wherewith to
return home."

"But the monk?"

"He has received a tenth part of the booty in virtue of an immemorial
custom. Do not reproach him, but rather be thankful to him for having
wished to save us, when his convent was interested in our capture."

This discussion was interrupted by the farewells of Dimitri. They had
just set him at liberty.

"Wait for me," said I to him: "we will return together." He shook his
head sadly, and answered me in English, so as to be understood by the
ladies:-- "You are prisoners for some days, and you will not see Athens
again before paying a ransom. I am going to inform the milord. Have
these ladies any messages to give me for him?"

"Tell him," cried Mrs. Simons, "to run to the embassy, to go then to the
Piraeus and find the admiral, to complain at the foreign office, to
write to Lord Palmerston! They shall take us away from here by force of
arms, or by public authority, but I do not intend that they shall
disburse a penny for my liberty."

"As for me," replied I, without so much passion, "I beg you to tell my
friends in what hands you have left me. If some hundreds of drachms are
necessary to ransom a poor devil of a naturalist, they will find them
without trouble. These gentlemen of the highway cannot rate me very
high. I have a mind, while you are still here, to ask them what I am
worth at the lowest price."

"It would be useless, my dear Mr. Hermann! It is not they who fix the
figures of your ransom."

"And who then?"

"Their chief, Hadgi-Stavros."

HADGI-STAVROS

From 'The King of the Mountains'

The camp of the King was a plateau, covering a surface of seven or eight
hundred metres. I looked in vain for the tents of our conquerors. The
brigands are not sybarites, and they sleep under the open sky on th