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 272 the robber could hear behind the window was,—

"Where is my twopence? Give me my twopence."

Suddenly the man who owed the twopence observed the robber standing close by; in an instant he stretched out his arm through the window, pulled off the robber's cap, and, giving it to his confederate, said,—

"Confound your twopence! Take this instead of your twopence!"

The robber, terrified, fled away without daring to look behind, and, having reached his companions, he cried out half dead with fear,—

"Oh, comrades! Thank heaven that we have escaped alive from that dreadful place. We have divided the money among ourselves with the helmet, but there is risen such an enormous number of dead people that, when they had divided the money among themselves, there was scarcely left twopence for each of them. In fact, that was even wanting for one of them, so they pulled off my cap and gave it to him instead of the twopence!"