At break of day, Greybeard got up very quietly, dressed himself, and, taking the rope, left the hut.
He went to that part of the forest where he knew the king’s servants must pass with the young bull. Climbing up into a big oak tree that stood close to the side of the road, he wound the rope round his body, and, crawling along a thick branch, he dropped gently from it, the rope under his arms, and his head hanging on his breast.
Presently he heard the king’s servants coming along with the young bull. As they came near the tree, they looked up, and saw, as they thought, the grey man, hanging apparently lifeless from the branch.
“Aha!” said one, “no doubt he has been robbing others beside our king, and so they have hanged him! Serve him right, the rascal; he will not trouble us again, or try to steal the bull!” So they passed on, quite satisfied that their enemy was dead.
But no sooner were they out of sight, than Greybeard climbed down, and taking a short cut through the brushwood, known only to himself, he was soon well in advance of the men. Quickly climbing up another big oak that stood near the road by which the king’s servants had to pass, he again twisted the rope round his body and hung down from the branch.
“THE GREY MAN, HANGING APPARENTLY LIFELESS FROM THE BRANCH.”
When the men arrived with the bull, they were greatly surprised to see another grey man hanging from the tree.
“Could there possibly be two Greybeards?” they asked each other, “or was there some magic at work?”
“Listen,” said the chief servant, “we will leave the bull here, run back to the other tree, and find out whether there are two Greybeards, or whether the same man hangs from both trees.”