Page:The Necromancer, or, The Tale of the Black Forest Vol. 2.djvu/86

 dinner, in greater or lesser number; the whole gang consisted of twenty-four stout men besides the Captain.

On the ninth, tenth, eleventh, and the three succeeding days, the robbers did not return, but on the fifteenth they all appeared in high spirits, though with empty hands; John concluded, from this circumstance, and from what he could gather from their mysterious discourses, that they must have had several other haunts, where they hoarded up their spoils, the old Castle on the skirts of the Black Forest, seemed, however, to be their usual residence.

After dinner was over, and the goblet had freely circulated, the Captain recollected that John was to give them a second sample of his capacity, ordered him to mount a horse, and conducted him, accompanied by two of his associates, to the high road leading thro' the forest, where he commanded him to lay