them, bidding them remember the words of the queen, they had set
upon him, had bound him hand and foot, and had left him to perish
in a cave, whence he had only been released by the charity of a
passer by, when he was well-nigh starved with hunger and cold. He
said that he had gone at once to the place where the treasure had
been hid, and had found all of it gone. The seven covetous men had
plainly carried it off, and he prophesied that they would never be
seen again."

"And they never were?"

"Never!" answered Joanna, in that same dark way; "for they were all
dead men!"

"Dead! how came they so?"

"Listen, and I will tell thee. I cannot prove my words. The fate of
the seven lies wrapped in mystery; but Esther vows that they were
all slain in the heart of the forest by Long Robin. She is as
certain of it as though she saw the deed. She knows that as the men
were carrying their last loads to the hiding place, wherever that
might be, Long Robin lay in wait and slew them one by one, taking
them unawares and plunging his knife into the neck of each, so that
they fell with never a cry. She knows it from strange words uttered
by him in sleep; knows it from the finding in the forest not many
years since of a number of human bones and seven skulls, all lying
near together in one place. Some woodmen found the ghastly remains;
and from that day forward none has cared to pass that way. It was
whispered that it was the work of fairies or gnomes, and the dell
is shunned by all who have ever heard the tale."