Yellow Franz says that if I run away he
will be sure to come across me some day again and that then he will
kill me."
Barney laughed.
"He is just talking, my boy," he said. "He thinks that by
frightening 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 him
more than killing me, and he would have done it long since but for
two 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 me
he knows that my father would never pay him."
"How much does your father owe him?"
"Five hundred marks, your majesty," replied Rudolph. "Two hundred of
this amount is the original debt, and the balance Yellow Franz has
added since he captured me, so that it is really ransom money. But
my father is a poor man, so that it will take a long time before he
can 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 silent
for some time, thinking. Possibly he could effect his own escape
with 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 to
Yellow Franz later, so that the youth need not fear the brigand's
revenge.
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