Page:The Necromancer, or, The Tale of the Black Forest Vol. 1.djvu/209

 Second Voice. He has procured us many a golden booty; has, by his cunning, extricated us from many neck-breaking difficulties; it would be ungrateful to be angry with him. What would become of our noble band if he did not guide our arm by his sage counsels?"

Third Voice. Bravely spoken, my lad, he is a good sort of a fellow, it is a thousand pities that he begins to grow old and infirm.

First Voice. Let him grow old and infirm, if he but escapes the gallows.

Here somebody was locking the door of an adjoining room, an hollow bustle and humming ensued, and the robbers (for such they must have been) were going to withdraw.

"Shall we break in upon the scoundrels?" whispered the Austrian to me.