from left to right. "Hush," said the girl, and laid her finger
upon her lips. "There! thou hadst best get away from here, poor
soul, as fast as thy legs can carry thee, for if the Lord Baron
should find thee here talking secretly at the postern door, he
would loose the wolf-hounds upon thee."

"Prut," said one-eyed Hans, with a grin, "the Baron is too big a
fly to see such a little gnat as I; but wolf-hounds or no wolf-
hounds, I can never go hence without showing thee the pretty
things that I have brought from the town, even though my stay be
at the danger of my own hide."

He flung the pack from off his shoulders as he spoke and fell to
unstrapping it, while the round face of the lass (her eyes big
with curiosity) peered down at him through the grated iron bars.

Hans held up a necklace of blue and white beads that glistened
like jewels in the sun, and from them hung a gorgeous filigree
cross. "Didst thou ever see a sweeter thing than this?" said he;
"and look, here is a comb that even the silversmith would swear
was pure silver all the way through." Then, in a soft, wheedling
voice, "Canst thou not let me in, my little bird? Sure there are
other lasses besides thyself who would like to trade with a poor
peddler who has travelled all the way from Gruenstadt just to
please the pretty ones of Trutz-Drachen."

"Nay," said the lass, in a frightened voice, " I cannot let thee
in; I know not what the Baron would do to me, even now, if he
knew that I was here talking to a stranger at the postern;" and
she made as if she would clap to the little window in his face;