e
barn-keeper, stroked his cheeks, and at last exclaimed, "A thousand and
again a thousand thanks to you, brave youth, for releasing me from my
long, long captivity. I have been obliged to watch over my treasure here
for many hundred years, because there was no one who had sufficient
courage or sense to divide the money so that nothing was left over. I
was therefore forced by a binding oath to strangle one after another,
and as no one returned, for the last two hundred years no one has dared
to come here, though there was not a night which I allowed to pass
without jingling the money. But it was destined for you, O child of good
luck! to become my deliverer, after I had almost abandoned all hope, and
fancied myself doomed to eternal imprisonment. Thanks, a thousand
thanks, for your good deed! Take now one of these heaps of money as the
reward for your trouble, but the other you must divide among the poor,
as an atonement for my grievous sins; for when I lived on earth in this
castle I was a great libertine and scoundrel. You have still to
accomplish one task for my benefit, and for your own. When you go
upstairs again, and you meet the great black cat on the stairs, seize it
and hang it up. Here is a noose from which it cannot escape again."

Hereupon he took from his bosom a chain woven of fine gold thread, as
thick as a shoe-string, which he handed to the barn-keeper, and then
vanished, as if he had sunk into the ground. A tremendous crash
followed, as if the earth had cloven asunder beneath the barn-keeper's
feet. The light went out, and he found himself in thick darkness, but
even this unexpected event did not shake his courage. He contrived to
grope his way till he came to the stairs, which he ascended till he
reached the first room, where he had boiled his porridge. The fire in
the hearth had long been extinguished, but he found some sparks among
the ashes, which he succeeded in blowing into a flame. The coffin was
still standing on the ground, but instead of the old man, the great
black cat was sleeping in it. The barn-keeper seized it by the head,
slipped the gold chain round its neck, hung it on a strong iron nail in
the wall, and then laid down on the floor to rest.

Next morning he made his way out of the ruins, and took the nearest path
to the inn from whence he had started. When the host saw that the
stranger had escaped unhurt, his joy and astonishment knew no bounds.
But the barn-keeper said, "Get me a f