arms, or by public authority, but I do not intend that they shall
disburse a penny for my liberty."

"As for me," replied I, without so much passion, "I beg you to tell my
friends in what hands you have left me. If some hundreds of drachms are
necessary to ransom a poor devil of a naturalist, they will find them
without trouble. These gentlemen of the highway cannot rate me very
high. I have a mind, while you are still here, to ask them what I am
worth at the lowest price."

"It would be useless, my dear Mr. Hermann! It is not they who fix the
figures of your ransom."

"And who then?"

"Their chief, Hadgi-Stavros."




HADGI-STAVROS

From 'The King of the Mountains'


The camp of the King was a plateau, covering a surface of seven or eight
hundred metres. I looked in vain for the tents of our conquerors. The
brigands are not sybarites, and they sleep under the open sky on the
30th of April. I saw neither spoils heaped up nor treasures displayed,
nor any of those things which one expects to find at the headquarters of