as the mouth
of the pass you will find it easy enough, for we send half a troop
as far as that every day; but beyond that I should say it would be
all but, if not quite, impassable. I advise you to stay here
quietly, until you hear of someone having crossed; or at any rate,
if you do go on, you must take three or four peasants as guides,
and to help you through difficult places."

"Would it not be possible, captain," Fergus asked, "to hire a
boat?"

"I did not think of that. Yes, there are flat boats that at
ordinary times go down to Dresden, with the rafts of timber; but
whether you would find anyone willing, now, to make such a journey
is more than I can say."

"I am very anxious to be back to my business," Fergus said; "and as
I should have to pay handsomely for guides to take me over, and
even then might lose my life, it would be better for me to pay
higher and get through at once."

On going down to the water side he saw several boats hauled up, and
it was not long before some boatmen, seeing a stranger examining
their craft, came down to him.

"I want to go down to Dresden," he said.

"'Tis a bad time of the year," one of the men replied.

"It is a bad time of the year, as far as cold is concerned; but it
is a good time of the year for going down the river," he said; "for
now that the frost has set in the river is low and the current
gentle, whereas in the spring, when the snow is melting, it must be
a raging torrent in some of the narrow defiles."

This evidence that the stranger, whoever he was, was no fool,
silenced the boatmen for a minute.

"Now," Fergus went on, "what is the lowest price that one of you
will take me and my horse down to Dresden for? I am disposed to pay
a fair price and not more, and if you attempt to charge an
exorbitant one, I shall take guides and follow the road."

"You would never get through," one of the men said.

"Well, at any rate I would try; and if I could not succeed by the
road by the river, I would cross by some other pass. I have no
doubt, whatever, I could get through by Graber and Zittau."

The stranger's acquaintance with the country again silenced the
men. They talked for a while apart, and then one said:

"We will take you for twenty rix dollars."

"Do you suppose that I am the emperor, in disguise?" Fergus said
indignantly. "'Tis but three days' journey, at most, and perhaps
six for coming back against the stream."

"We shall need four men, master,