TREED BY WOLVES 219

that you need. Therefore, this life, which is hard and
rough, to say nothing of its danger, does not suit you; but
for all that, you must stay with us, for it would be madness
for you to attempt to escape.

“As I told you, the peasants are maddened, and would
kill any passing stranger as they would a wild beast. ‘They
would regard him as a spy of some band lke ours or of a
company of disbanded soldiers, sent forward to discover
which houses and villages are best worth plundering. In
your case you have other dangers to fear. You may be
sure that news has been sent from Warsaw to all the differ-
ent governors with orders for your arrest for killing Ben
Soloman, and these orders will be transmitted to every town
and village. Your hair and eyes would at once betray you
as strangers, and your ignorance of the language would be
fatal to you. If, therefore, you escaped being killed as a
robber by the peasants, you would run the risk of arrest at
the first town or village you entered.

“Translate that to him, Stanislas. He is learning our
language fast, but he cannot understand all that.”

“That is just what we were talking about,” Charlie said
when Stanislas had repeated the captain’s speech, “and the
danger seems too great to be risked. ‘Think you, that when
we get farther to the east, we shall be able to make our way
more easily up into Livonia?”

“Much more easily, because the forest is more extensive
there; but not until the winter is over. The cold will be
terrible, and it would be death to sleep without shelter.
Besides the forests are infested with wolves, who roam
about in packs, and would scent and follow and devour you.
But when spring comes you can turn your faces to the
north and leave us if you think fit, and I promise you that
no hindrance shall be thrown in your way. I only ask you
not to risk your lives by trying now to pass through Poland
alone.”