"I am like Conrad," he replied, sulkily. "It is not only countrymen who have their necks in a noose, and I have to do what I am ordered."
"By a bigger rogue than yourself?"
"That is so; bigger and cleverer."
"You are expecting him here now, our new comrade tells us. Well, you need expect him no longer. He will not come. If you will go along the path, you will come upon his body, and may bury him if you like to take the trouble."
An exclamation of satisfaction broke from the two men.
"You have done us a service, indeed," the charcoal burner said. "We had thought to do it for ourselves, this morning, for after the escape of him you call your new comrade, he would have shown us no mercy."
"You may thank our new comrade, and not us," the brigand said. "We only arrived on the spot when it was all over."
The Jew looked at Charlie in astonishment.
"What! Did he kill Ben Soloman?"
"That did he; or rather, the Jew killed himself. There was a grapple hand to hand, and a wrestle. The Jew fell undermost, and was pierced with his own knife."