They thought it odd that the king should hold his dignity in so low
esteem, but that he was king they never doubted, attributing his
denials 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 messenger
dispatched by Yellow Franz, and from the repeated gestures toward
himself that had accompanied the giant's instructions to his
emissary, Barney was positive that the man's errand had to do with
him.
After the men had left his prison, leaving the boy standing
awkwardly in wide-eyed contemplation of his august charge, the
American 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 he
could not pay the debt Yellow Franz stole me from my home and says
that he will keep me until my father pays him, and that if he does
not pay he will make a bandit of me, and that then some day I shall
be caught and hanged until I am dead."
"Can't you escape?" asked the young man. "It would seem to me that
there would be many opportunities for you to get away undetected."
"There are, but I dare not.
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