ney. "Sirrah," said I, "are you aware that I am going to carry these
keys straight to the lieutenant of police, and to bespeak a place for
you on the gibbet?" By the powers! you should have seen how the
simpleton opened his eyes, and began to shake from head to foot like a
dripping poodle. "For heaven's sake, sir, do but consider. I will--
will--" "What will you? Will you at once cut your stick and go to the
devil with me?" "Oh, with all my heart, with great pleasure." Ha! ha!
ha! my fine fellow; toasted cheese is the thing to catch mice with; do
have a good laugh at him, Razman; ha! ha! ha!

RAZ. Yes, yes, I must confess. I shall inscribe that lesson in letters
of gold upon the tablet of my brain. Satan must know his people right
well to have chosen you for his factor.

SPIEGEL. Eh, brother? Eli? And if I help him to half a score of
fellows he will, of course, let me off scot-free--publishers, you know,
always give one copy in ten gratis to those who collect subscribers for
them; why should the devil be more of a Jew? Razman, I smell powder.

RAZ. Zounds! I smelt it long ago. You may depend upon it there has
being something going forward hereabouts. Yes, yes! I can tell you,
Spiegelberg, you will be welcome to our captain with your recruits; he,
too, has got hold of some brave fellows.

SPIEGEL. But look at mine! at mine here, bah!

RAZ. Well, well! they may be tolerably expert in the finger
department, but, I tell you, the fame of our captain has tempted even
some honorable men to join his staff.

SPIEGEL. So much the worse.

RAZ. Without joking. And they are not ashamed to serve under such a
leader. He does not commit murder as we do for the sake of plunder; and
as to money, as soon as he had plenty of it at command, he did not seem
to care a straw for it; and his third of the booty, which belongs to him
of right, he gives away to orphans, or supports promising young men with
it at college. But should he happen to get a country squire into his
clutches who grinds down his peasants like cattle, or some gold-laced
villain, who warps the law to his own purposes, and hoodwinks the eyes
of justice with his gold, or any chap of that kidney; then, my boy, he
is in his element, and rages like a very devil, as if every fibre in his
body were a fury.

SPIEGEL. Humph!

RAZ. The other day we were told at a tavern that a rich count from
Ratisbon was about to pass through, who had gained the day in a suit
worth a millio