he
drew it back, he held before the robber's nose a double-barrelled
pistol, ready cocked.

It was a fine precaution--a pistol beautifully covered up by a heap of
coins.

The robber staggered back, and forgot to withdraw the knife from his
mouth. And so he stood before Sarvoelgyi, a knife between his teeth, his
eyes wide opened, and his two hands stretched before him in
self-defence.

"You see," said Sarvoelgyi calmly, "I might shoot you now, did I wish.
You are entirely in my power. But see, I spoke the truth to you.--Hold
your cap and take the money."

He put the pistol down beside him and took out a goodly pile of dollars.

"A plague upon your jesting eyes!" hissed the robber through the knife.
"Why do you frighten a fellow? The darts of Heaven destroy you!"

He was still trembling, so frightened had he been.

The loaded weapon in another's hand had driven away all his courage.

The robber could only be audacious, not courageous.

"Hold your cap."

Sarvoelgyi shovelled the heap of silver coins into the robber's cap.

"Now perhaps you can believe it is not fear that makes me confide in
you?"

"A plague upon you. How you alarmed me!"

"Well, now collect your wits and listen to me."

The robber stuffed the money into his pockets and listened with
contracted eyebrows.

"You may see it was not I who stole your money; for, had I done so, I
should just now have planted two bullets in your carcass, one in your
heart, the other in your skull. And I should have got one hundred gold
pieces by it, that being the price on your head."

The robber smiled bashfully, like one who is flattered. He took it as a
compliment that the county had put a price of one hundred gold pieces on
his head.

"You may be quite sure that it was not I, but those folks yonder, who
took away your money."

"The highwaymen!"

"You are right--highwaymen:--worse even than that. Atheists! The earth
will be purified if they are wiped out. He who kills them is doing as
just an action as the man that shoots a wolf or a hawk."

"True, true;" Kandur nodded assent.

"This rogue who stole away your daughter laid a snare for another
innocent creature. He must have two, one for his right hand, the other
for his left. And when the persecuted innocent girl escaped from the
deceiver to my house and became my wife, those folks yonder swore deadly
revenge against me. Because I rescued an innocent soul from the cave of
crime, they thrice wished