“The smugglers?” ejaculated Fredrich Weimher, springing eagerly to his feet. “Ah! I know where their den is, and we will organize a party at once, and go to the rescue of my friend and his bride.”
“But how will you enter their den, as you call it? That is a secret which but very few even of their own band is possessed of.”
“How do you know?” demanded Fredrich Weimher, regarding the man searchingly.
“Because I am one of them,” he replied, boldly meeting his glance.
“You!”
“Yes, I!”
“Then you are, after all, an enemy to those whom I would serve,” returned Fredrich, sternly.
The strange man smiled, and Fredrich Weimher, fearing that he had been willfully duped, said sharply:
“Do you mean me to understand that you are in league against these people?”
“To that question I can answer both yes and no,” he calmly returned. “I am a friend, and yet I am an enemy.”