ud as he thought of the scrimmage that would
ensue when this knowledge came to them. But little as he cared for the
eighteen, he experienced a pang of regret as he estimated the
predicament in which both Greusel and Ebearhard had stood on learning he
had left them without a word. Still, even now he could not see how any
explanation on his part was possible without revealing his identity, and
that he was determined not to do.

Turning round, he said abruptly to the custodian:

"Were the seven hundred thalers paid to you each month?"

"Of a surety," was the reply.

"That will be two thousand one hundred thalers altogether. Did you spend
the money?"

"I have not touched a single coin. That amount is yours, and yours
alone, Prince Roland. If I have been of service I am quite content to
wait for my reward, or should I not be here, I know you will remember my
family."

"May the Lord forget me if I don't. Still, the twenty-one hundred
thalers are all yours, remember, but I beg of you to lend me a thousand,
for I possess not a single gold piece in my bag. Indeed, if it comes to
that, I do not possess even a bag. I had two yesterday, but one I gave
away and the other I threw away."

The old man hurried down, and presently returned with the bag of money
that Roland had asked of him. Before this happened, however, Roland,
watching the barge, saw it round to, and tie up at the shore some
distance above Assmannshausen. He took the gold, and passed down the
stone stair to the courtyard.

"I shall return," he said, "before the sun sets," and without more ado,
this extraordinary captive left his prison, and descended the hill in
the direction of the barge.

After greeting Captain Blumenfels, he learned that the boat had been
delayed by running on a sandbank in the Main during the night, but they
had got it off at daybreak, and here they were. As, standing on the
shore, Roland talked with the captain on the barge, he saw approaching
from Assmannshausen two men whom he recognized. Telling the captain he
might not be ready for several days, he walked along the shore to meet
his astonished friends, who, as was usual with them, jumped at an
erroneous conclusion, and supposed that he arrived on the barge which
they had seen rounding to for the purpose of taking up her berth by the
river-bank.

Greusel and Ebearhard stood still until he came up to them.

"Good afternoon, gentlemen. Are you here alone, or have you brought the
mo