ds Asabri answered that he would not. Inwardly,
it was as if he had been made of smiles; but he showed them a stern
countenance when he said:

"One thing! Before I touch this money, is there blood on it?"

"High hands only," said the sullen brigand; but the youngest protested.

"Indeed, yes," he said, "there is blood upon it. Look, see, and behold!"

He bared a breast on which the skin was fine and satiny like a woman's,
and they saw in the firelight the cicatrice of a newly healed wound.

"A few drops of mine," he said proudly. "May they bring the money luck."

"One thing more," said Asabri; "I have said that I will mend your
fortunes. What sum apiece would make you comfortable for the rest of
your days and teach you to see the evil in your present manner of life?"

"If the money were to be doubled," said the sullen brigand, "then each
of us could have what he most desires."

"And what is that?" asked the banker.

"For me," said the sullen brigand, "there is a certain piece of land
upon which are grapes, figs, and olives."

The second brigand said: "I am a waterman by birth and by longing. If I
could purchase a certain barge upon which I have long had an eye, I
should do well and honestly in the world, and happily."

"And you? What do you want?" Asabri smiled paternally in the face of
the youngest brigand.

This one showed his beautiful teeth a moment, and drew the rags together
over his scarred breast.

"I am nineteen years of age," he said, and his eyes glistened. "There is
a girl, sir, in my village. Her eyes are like velvet; her skin is smooth
as custard. She is very beautiful. If I could go to her father with a
certain sum of money, he would not ask where I had gotten it--that is
why I have robbed on the highway. He would merely stretch forth his
hands and roll his fat eyes heavenward, and say: 'Bless you, my
children.'"

"But the girl," said Asabri.

"It is wonderful," said the youngest brigand, "how she loves me. And
when I told her that I was going upon the road to earn the moneys
necessary for our happiness, she said that she would climb down from her
window at night and come with me. But," he concluded unctuously, "I
pointed out to her that from sin springs nothing but unhappiness."

"We formed a fellowship, we three," said the second brigand, "and swore
an oath: to take from the world so much as would make us happy, and no
more."

"My friends," said Asabri, "there are worse brigands than