les of the cellar under the town hall. 'Oh,
we do so want to see the Swedish prisoners!' said the child to Conrad,
who happened to be passing on the way to his mother's house. 'One of
them has such a dreadful great beard,' Dollie continued; 'I am sure he
must be General Wrangel's bagpiper. Only think, if he had his pipes
here, he could play to us! Just peep in there; sometimes one of them
comes to the window and looks up at us.'

Conrad complied with the child's wish, kneeling down beside her.
Suddenly a heavy hand was laid on his shoulder, and a voice he always
dreaded to hear said, this time, however, in very friendly tones:
'Hallo, Conrad, and what may you be doing here?'

It was into the face of his stepfather that the startled boy stared as
he rose hastily to his feet.

'Come along, my son,' said Juechziger very blandly. 'I have something
to tell you.' So saying, he drew the boy aside into the passageway of
the town hall. 'Listen to me,' he went on good-humouredly; 'I want you
to do something for your mother.'

'For my mother!' said Conrad cheerfully. 'Oh yes; I shall be so glad
to do it!'

'And for you and me at the same time,' said Juechziger. 'I just want
you to go out to our house beyond the Peter Gate.'

'But it's pulled down,' objected Conrad.

'Yes, of course, I know that; but the cellar is there still, and in one
corner of that cellar your mother buried a little box with all sorts of
precious things in it. I want you to go and dig it up, and bring it to
me.'

'But the Swedes are all round out there. They will be sure to kill me,
and take the box; they are most tremendous thieves.'

'You needn't trouble yourself about that. I take care of the Swedish
prisoners, and one of them has given me a safe-conduct' (he pronounced
this word very carefully),--'a safe-conduct that I shall give to you.
You are only to get it out if you meet a Swede, and then they'll not
only not hurt a hair of your head, but be very kind indeed to you. But
you must be sure and not let another soul see the safe-conduct, or else
it will all be of no use.'

'Why did mother never say anything about the box?' asked Conrad.

'H'm!' said Juechziger; 'she--well--she--in fact, she didn't quite trust
me, I'm sorry to say, and wanted to keep all the things in it for you.
But now she sees how wrong that was, and she has confessed all about it
to me. I don't want the box for myself; all I want is to see it out of
danger.'