VI
A KING'S RANSOM
For another mile the two brigands conducted their captor along themountainside, then they turned into a narrow ravine near the summitof the hills--a deep, rocky, wooded ravine into whose black shadowsit seemed the sun might never penetrate.
A winding path led crookedly among the pines that grew thickly inthis sheltered hollow, until presently, after half an hour of roughgoing, they came upon a small natural clearing, rock-bound andimpregnable.
As they filed from the wood Barney saw a score of villainous fellowsclustered about a camp fire where they seemed engaged in cookingtheir noonday meal. Bits of meat were roasting upon iron skewers,and a great iron pot boiled vigorously at one side of the blaze.
At the sound of their approach the men sprang to their feet inalarm, and as many weapons as there were men leaped to view; butwhen they saw Barney's companions they returned their pistols totheir holsters, and at sight of Barney they pressed forward toinspect the prisoner.
"Who have we here?" shouted a big blond giant, who affectedextremely gaudy colors in his selection of wearing apparel, andwhose pistols and knife had their grips heavily ornamented withpearl and silver.
"A stranger in Lutha he calls himself," replied one of Barney'scaptors. "But from the sword I take it he is one of old Peter'swolfhounds."
"Well, he's found the wolves at any rate," replied the giant, with awide grin at his witticism. "And if Yellow Franz is the particularwolf you're after, my friend, why here I am," he concluded,addressing the American with a leer.
"I'm after no one," replied Barney. "I tell you I'm a stranger, andI lost my way in your infernal mountains. All I wish is to be setupon the right road to Tann, and if you will do that for me youshall be well paid for your trouble."
The giant, Yellow Franz, had come quite close to Barney and wasinspecting him with an expression of considerable interest.Presently he drew a soiled and much-folded paper from his breast.Upon one side was a printed notice, and at the corners bits weretorn away as though the paper had once been tacked upon wood, andthen torn down without removing the tacks.
At sight of it Barney's heart sank. The look of the thing was alltoo familiar. Before the yellow one had commenced to read aloud fromit Barney had repeated to himself the words he knew were coming.
"'Gray eyes,'" read the brigand, "'brown hair, and a full,reddish-brown beard.' Herman and Friedrich, my dear children, youhave stumbled upon the richest haul in all Lutha. Down upon yourmarrow-bones, you swine, and rub your low-born noses in the dirtbefore your king."
The others looked their surprise.
"The king?" one cried.
"Behold!" cried Yellow Franz. "Leopold of Lutha!"
He waved a ham-like hand toward Barney.
Among the rough men was a young smooth-faced boy, and now with wideeyes he pressed forward to get a nearer view of the wonderful personof a king.
"Take a good look at him, Rudolph," cried Yellow Franz. "It is thefirst and will probably be the last time you will ever see a king.Kings seldom visit the court of their fellow monarch, Yellow Franzof the Black Mountains.
"Come, my children, remove his majesty's sword, lest he fall andstick himself upon it, and then prepare the royal chamber, seeing toit that it be made so comfortable that Leopold will remain with us along time. Rudolph, fetch food and water for his majesty, and see toit that the silver plates and the golden goblets are well scouredand polished up."
They conducted Barney to a miserable lean-to shack at one side ofthe clearing, and for a while the motley crew loitered aboutbandying coarse jests at the expense of the "king." The boy,Rudolph, brought food and water, he alone of them all evincing theslightest respect or awe for the royalty of their unwilling guest.
After a time the men tired of the sport of king-baiting, for Barneyshowed neither rancor nor outraged majesty at their keenest thrusts,instead, often joining in the laugh with them at his own expense.They thought it odd that the king should hold his dignity in so lowesteem, but that he was king they never doubted, attributing hisdenials to a disposition to deceive them, and rob them of the"king's ransom" they had already commenced to consider as their own.
Shortly after Barney arrived at the rendezvous he saw a messengerdispatched by Yellow Franz, and from the repeated gestures towardhimself that had accompanied the giant's instructions to hisemissary, Barney was positive that the man's errand had to do withhim.
After the men had left his prison, leaving the boy standingawkwardly in wide-eyed contemplation of his august charge, theAmerican ventured to open a conversation with his youthful keeper.
"Aren't you rather young to be starting in the bandit business,Rudolph?" asked Barney, who had taken a fancy to the youth.
"I do not want to be a bandit, your majesty," whispered the lad;"but my father owes Yellow Franz a great sum of money, and as hecould not pay the debt Yellow Franz stole me from my home and saysthat he will keep me until my father pays him, and that if he doesnot pay he will make a bandit of me, and that then some day I shallbe caught and hanged until I am dead."
"Can't you escape?" asked the young man. "It would seem to me thatthere would be many opportunities for you to get away undetected."
"There are, but I dare not. Yellow Franz says that if I run away hewill be sure to come across me some day again and that then he willkill me."
Barney laughed.
"He is just talking, my boy," he said. "He thinks that byfrightening you he will be able to keep you from running away."
"Your majesty does not know him," whispered the youth, shuddering."He is the wickedest man in all the world. Nothing would please himmore than killing me, and he would have done it long since but fortwo things. One is that I have made myself useful about his camp,doing chores and the like, and the other is that were he to kill mehe knows that my father would never pay him."
"How much does your father owe him?"
"Five hundred marks, your majesty," replied Rudolph. "Two hundred ofthis amount is the original debt, and the balance Yellow Franz hasadded since he captured me, so that it is really ransom money. Butmy father is a poor man, so that it will take a long time before hecan accumulate so large a sum.
"You would really like to go home again, Rudolph?"
"Oh, very much, your majesty, if I only dared." Barney was silentfor some time, thinking. Possibly he could effect his own escapewith the connivance of Rudolph, and at the same time free the boy.The paltry ransom he could pay out of his own pocket and send toYellow Franz later, so that the youth need not fear the brigand'srevenge. It was worth thinking about, at any rate.
"How long do you imagine they will keep me, Rudolph?" he asked aftera time.
"Yellow Franz has already sent Herman to Lustadt with a message forPrince Peter, telling him that you are being held for ransom, anddemanding the payment of a huge sum for your release. Day aftertomorrow or the next day he should return with Prince Peter's reply.
"If it is favorable, arrangements will be made to turn you over toPrince Peter's agents, who will have to come to some distant meetingplace with the money. A week, perhaps, it will take, maybe longer."
It was the second day before Herman returned from Lustadt. He rodein just at dark, his pony lathered from hard going.
Barney and the boy saw him coming, and the youth ran forward withthe others to learn the news that he had brought; but Yellow Franzand his messenger withdrew to a hut which the brigand chief reservedfor his own use, nor would he permit any beside the messenger toaccompany him to hear the report.
For half an hour Barney sat alone waiting for word from Yellow Franzthat arrangements had been consummated for his release, and then outof the darkness came Rudolph, wide-eyed and trembling.
"Oh, my king?" he whispered. "What shall we do? Peter has refusedto ransom you alive, but he has offered a great sum for unquestionedproof of your death. Already he has caused a proclamation to beissued stating that you have been killed by bandits after escapingfrom Blentz,
and ordering a period of national mourning. In threeweeks he is to be crowned king of Lutha."
"When do they intend terminating my existence?" queried Barney.
There was a smile upon his lips, for even now he could scarcebelieve that in the twentieth century there could be any suchmedieval plotting against a king's life, and yet, on second thought,had he not ample proof of the lengths to which Peter of Blentz waswilling to go to obtain the crown of Lutha!
"I do not know, your majesty," replied Rudolph, "when they will doit; but soon, doubtless, since the sooner it is done the sooner theycan collect their pay."
Further conversation was interrupted by the sound of footstepswithout, and an instant later Yellow Franz entered the squalidapartment and the dim circle of light which flickered feebly fromthe smoky lantern that hung suspended from the rafters.
He stopped just within the doorway and stood eyeing the Americanwith an ugly grin upon his vicious face. Then his eyes fell upon thetrembling Rudolph.
"Get out of here, you!" he growled. "I've got private business withthis king. And see that you don't come nosing round either, or I'llslit that soft throat for you."
Rudolph slipped past the burly ruffian, barely dodging a brutal blowaimed at him by the giant, and escaped into the darkness without.
"And now for you, my fine fellow," said the brigand, turning towardBarney. "Peter says you ain't worth nothing to him--alive, but thatyour dead body will fetch us a hundred thousand marks."
"Rather cheap for a king, isn't it?" was Barney's only comment.
"That's what Herman tells him," replied Yellow Franz. "But he's aclose one, Peter is, and so it was that or nothing."
"When are you going to pull off this little--er--ah--royal demise?"asked Barney.
"If you mean when am I going to kill you," replied the bandit, "why,there ain't no particular rush about it. I'm a tender-hearted chap,I am. I never should have been in this business at all, but here Ibe, and as there ain't nobody that can do a better job of the kindthan me, or do it so painlessly, why I just got to do it myself, andthat's all there is to it. But, as I says, there ain't no greatrush. If you want to pray, why, go ahead and pray. I'll wait foryou."
"I don't remember," said Barney, "when I have met so generous aparty as you, my friend. Your self-sacrificing magnanimity quiteoverpowers me. It reminds me of another unloved Robin Hood whom Ionce met. It was in front of Burket's coal-yard on Ella Street, backin dear old Beatrice, at some unchristian hour of the night.
"After he had relieved me of a dollar and forty cents he remarked:'I gotta good mind to kick yer slats in fer not havin' more of decush on yeh; but I'm feelin' so good about de last guy I stuck upI'll let youse off dis time.'"
"I do not know what you are talking about," replied Yellow Franz;"but if you want to pray you'd better hurry up about it."
He drew his pistol from its holster on the belt at his hips.
Now Barney Custer had no mind to give up the ghost without astruggle; but just how he was to overcome the great beast whoconfronted him with menacing pistol was, to say the least, notprecisely plain. He wished the man would come a little nearer wherehe might have some chance to close with him before the fellow couldfire. To gain time the American assumed a prayerful attitude, butkept one eye on the bandit.
Presently Yellow Franz showed indications of impatience. He fingeredthe trigger of his weapon, and then slowly raised it on a line withBarney's chest.
"Hadn't you better come closer?" asked the young man. "You mightmiss at that distance, or just wound me."
Yellow Franz grinned.
"I don't miss," he said, and then: "You're certainly a game one. Ifit wasn't for the hundred thousand marks, I'd be hanged if I'd killyou."
"The chances are that you will be if you do," said Barney, "sowouldn't you rather take one hundred and fifty thousand marks andlet me make my escape?"
Yellow Franz looked at the speaker a moment through narrowed lids.
"Where would you find any one willing to pay that amount for a crazyking?" he asked.
"I have told you that I am not the king," said Barney. "I am anAmerican with a father who would gladly pay that amount on my safedelivery to any American consul."
Yellow Franz shook his head and tapped his brow significantly.
"Even if you was what you are dreaming, it wouldn't pay me," hesaid.
"I'll make it two hundred thousand," said Barney.
"No--it's a waste of time talking about it. It's worth more thanmoney to me to know that I'll always have this thing on Peter, andthat when he's king he won't dare bother me for fear I'll publishthe details of this little deal. Come, you must be through prayingby this time. I can't wait around here all night." Again YellowFranz raised his pistol toward Barney's heart.
Before the brigand could pull the trigger, or Barney hurl himselfupon his would-be assassin, there was a flash and a loud report fromthe open window of the shack.
With a groan Yellow Franz crumpled to the dirt floor, andsimultaneously Barney was upon him and had wrested the pistol fromhis hand; but the precaution was unnecessary for Yellow Franz wouldnever again press finger to trigger. He was dead even before Barneyreached his side.
In possession of the weapon, the American turned toward the windowfrom which had come the rescuing shot, and as he did so he saw theboy, Rudolph, clambering over the sill, white-faced and trembling.In his hand was a smoking carbine, and on his brow great beads ofcold sweat.
"God forgive me!" murmured the youth. "I have killed a man."
"You have killed a dangerous wild beast, Rudolph," said Barney, "andboth God and your fellow man will thank and reward you."
"I am glad that I killed him, though," went on the boy, "for hewould have killed you, my king, had I not done so. Gladly would I goto the gallows to save my king."
"You are a brave lad, Rudolph," said Barney, "and if ever I get outof the pretty pickle I'm in you'll be well rewarded for your loyaltyto Leopold of Lutha. After all," thought the young man, "being akind has its redeeming features, for if the boy had not thought mehis monarch he would never have risked the vengeance of thebloodthirsty brigands in this attempt to save me."
"Hasten, your majesty," whispered the boy, tugging at the sleeve ofBarney's jacket. "There is no time to be lost. We must be far awayfrom here when the others discover that Yellow Franz has beenkilled."
Barney stooped above the dead man, and removing his belt andcartridges transferred them to his own person. Then blowing out thelantern the two slipped out into the darkness of the night.
About the camp fire of the brigands the entire pack was congregated.They were talking together in low voices, ever and anon glancingexpectantly toward the shack to which their chief had gone todispatch the king. It is not every day that a king is murdered, andeven these hardened cut-throats felt the spell of awe at the thoughtof what they believed the sharp report they had heard from the shackportended.
Keeping well to the far side of the clearing, Rudolph led Barneyaround the group of men and safely into the wood below them. Fromthis point the boy followed the trail which Barney and his captorshad traversed two days previously, until he came to a divergingravine that led steeply up through the mountains upon their righthand.
In the distance behind them they suddenly heard, faintly, theshouting of men.
"They have discovered Yellow Franz," whispered the boy, shuddering.
"Then they'll be after us directly," said Barney.
"Yes, your majesty," replied Rudolph, "but in the darkness they willnot see that we have turned up this ravine, and so they will ride ondown the other. I have chosen this way because their horses cannotfollow us here, and thus we shall be under no great disadvantage. Itmay be, however, that we shall have to hide in the mountains for awhile, since there will be no place of safety for us between hereand Lustadt until after the edge of their anger is dulled."
And such proved to be the case, for try as they would they found itimpossible to reach Lustadt without det
ection by the brigands whopatrolled every highway and byway from their rugged mountains to thecapital of Lutha.
For nearly three weeks Barney and the boy hid in caves or denseunderbrush by day, and by night sought some avenue which would leadthem past the vigilant sentries that patrolled the ways to freedom.
Often they were wet by rains, nor were they ever in the warmsunlight for a sufficient length of time to become thoroughly dryand comfortable. Of food they had little, and of the poorestquality.
They dared not light a fire for warmth or cooking, and their lightwas so miserable that, but for the boy's pitiful terror at thethought of being recaptured by the bandits, Barney would long sincehave made a break for Lustadt, depending upon their arms andammunition to carry them safely through were they discovered bytheir enemies.
Rudolph had contracted a severe cold the first night, and now, ithaving settled upon his lungs, he had developed a persistent andaggravating cough that caused Barney not a little apprehension.When, after nearly three weeks of suffering and privation, it becameclear that the boy's lungs were affected, the American decided totake matters into his own hands and attempt to reach Lustadt and agood doctor; but before he had an opportunity to put his plan intoexecution the entire matter was removed from his jurisdiction.
It happened like this: After a particularly fatiguing anduncomfortable night spent in attempting to elude the sentinels whoblocked their way from the mountains, daylight found them near alittle spring, and here they decided to rest for an hour beforeresuming their way.
The little pool lay not far from a clump of heavy bushes which wouldoffer them excellent shelter, as it was Barney's intention to gointo hiding as soon as they had quenched their thirst at the spring.
Rudolph was coughing pitifully, his slender frame wracked by theconvulsion of each new attack. Barney had placed an arm about theboy to support him, for the paroxysms always left him very weak.
The young man's heart went out to the poor boy, and pangs of regretfilled his mind as he realized that the child's pathetic conditionwas the direct result of his self-sacrificing attempt to save hisking. Barney felt much like a murderer and a thief, and dreaded thetime when the boy should be brought to a realization of his mistake.
He had come to feel a warm affection for the loyal little lad, whohad suffered so uncomplainingly and whose every thought had been forthe safety and comfort of his king.
Today, thought Barney, I'll take this child through to Lustadt evenif every ragged brigand in Lutha lies between us and the capital;but even as he spoke a sudden crashing of underbrush behind causedhim to wheel about, and there, not twenty paces from them, stood twoof Yellow Franz's cutthroats.
At sight of Barney and the lad they gave voice to a shout oftriumph, and raising their carbines fired point-blank at the twofugitives.
But Barney had been equally as quick with his own weapon, and at themoment that they fired he grasped Rudolph and dragged him backwardto a great boulder behind which their bodies might be protected fromthe fire of their enemies.
Both the bullets of the bandits' first volley had been directed atBarney, for it was upon his head that the great price rested. Theyhad missed him by a narrow margin, due, perhaps, to the fact thatthe mounts of the brigands had been prancing in alarm at theunexpected sight of the two strangers at the very moment that theirriders attempted to take aim and fire.
But now they had ridden back into the brush and dismounted, andafter hiding their ponies they came creeping out upon their belliesupon opposite sides of Barney's shelter.
The American saw that it would be an easy thing for them to pick himoff if he remained where he was, and so with a word to Rudolph hesprang up and the boy with him. Each delivered a quick shot at thebandit nearest him, and then together they broke for the bushes inwhich the brigand's mounts were hidden.
Two shots answered theirs. Rudolph, who was ahead of Barney,stumbled and threw up his hands. He would have fallen had not theAmerican thrown a strong arm about him.
"I'm shot, your majesty," murmured the boy, his head droppingagainst Barney's breast.
With the lad grasped close to him, the young man turned at the edgeof the brush to meet the charge of the two ruffians. The wounding ofthe youth had delayed them just enough to preclude their making thistemporary refuge in safety.
As Barney turned both the men fired simultaneously, and both missed.The American raised his revolver, and with the flash of it theforemost brigand came to a sudden stop. An expression ofbewilderment crossed his features. He extended his arms straightbefore him, the revolver slipped from his grasp, and then like adying top he pivoted once drunkenly and collapsed upon the turf.
At the instant of his fall his companion and the American firedpoint-blank at one another.
Barney felt a burning sensation in his shoulder, but it wasforgotten for the moment in the relief that came to him as he sawthe second rascal sprawl headlong upon his face. Then he turned hisattention to the limp little figure that hung across his left arm.
Gently Barney laid the boy upon the sward, and fetching water fromthe pool bathed his face and forced a few drops between the whitelips. The cooling draft revived the wounded child, but brought on aparoxysm of coughing. When this had subsided Rudolph raised his eyesto those of the man bending above him.
"Thank God, your majesty is unharmed," he whispered. "Now I can diein peace."
The white lids drooped lower, and with a tired sigh the boy layquiet. Tears came to the young man's eyes as he let the limp bodygently to the ground.
"Brave little heart," he murmured, "you gave up your life in theservice of your king as truly as though you had not been allmistaken in the object of your veneration, and if it lies within thepower of Barney Custer you shall not have died in vain."