A faint smile lurked round the corners of the old man"s mouth, and there was a twinkle in his eye.
"At last," he muttered to himself, "at last!"
Just then there was a noise as of branches being pushed aside and dry twigs being crushed; and forth stepped a stalwart peasant, all in rags and tatters, and placed himself, hat in hand, before the old man.
"Hullo!" exclaimed the latter, "why, where did you come from?"
And yet his surprise looked more a.s.sumed than real.
"Charity!" replied the beggar.
"Charity!" echoed the old man, fumbling in his pockets, "by all means; take this, my honest fellow."
So saying, he dropped a piece of money into his open palm.
"Gold! Yes, a golden piece, by all the saints in the calendar."
The beggar"s eyes glistened greedily at the piece.
"Heaven bless you!" he exclaimed; "may you live for ever."
"Don"t wish me that," responded the old man; "that is no blessing."
"Not with your riches?" said the mendicant
"No."
"You are not easily satisfied then."
And then came forth from the beggar a strange sound.
Was it a signal?
It almost appeared to be the result of a preconcerted arrangement, for while the sound of his laughter echoed down the leafy grove, there was a crashing of branches and general breaking of the dried twigs and undergrowth, and out swarmed a group of men numbering perhaps ten or a dozen.
A villanous-looking mob they were too.
They surrounded the old man and were about to attack him, when the first man who had already profited by the old man"s charity warned them off.
"There is no need for violence here," said he, hurriedly, and speaking in their native language; "he will give us up all he has got without so much as dirtying a knife over him."
The old man laughed.
A dry, cynical laugh it was too, and almost calculated to make one believe that he had understood what they said.
"Who are these people?" he asked of the first beggar.
"Poor men worthy of your pious charity, like myself," was the reply.
"Then they shall have it," replied the old man; "more than they expect."
He looked around him rather anxiously, as if expecting some more people to arrive.
Now that glance was observed by more than one of the men, and it was no very difficult matter to excite suspicion in their minds.
"He expects someone," said the foremost man of the party; "he is a spy."
"See how he"s looking about him," observed another. "What shall we do?"
"Kill him at once."
"Yes, kill him."
"On to him."
And the speaker himself was the first to act upon his own counsel.
He stepped forward to catch the old man by the coat, but the latter, retreating a couple of paces, appeared startled.
"Keep your distance, my masters," he said; "keep your distance, because I am a very dangerous fellow."
They laughed at this.
"Dangerous, you are?" cried one of them, "oh, oh! what is your name?"
"Why, they call me the leech-fisher."
"The leech-fisher!"
"Yes."
"What for?"
"Because I am my own trap and bait and all,"
They looked puzzled.
"He"s mad."
"Daft as he can be."
"Poor old fool. But let us get his money if he has any, without killing him."
"Money!" echoed the self-styled leech-fisher. "Here"s plenty."
And with these words he threw a pile of gold pieces upon the ground, making all the lawless ruffians" eyes glisten greedily.
"You don"t seem yet to understand the parable of the leech-fisher,"
said the singular old man. "You are dense blockheads."