kick, and the Shifty Lad stood below, watching him and laughing
heartily.

'Oh, how funny you are! If you could only see yourself! Oh, you
ARE funny! But when you have had enough, whistle and you shall be
let down'; and he rocked again with laughter.

But no whistle came, and soon the legs ceased to shake and to
kick, for the Black Gallows Bird was dead, as the Shifty Lad
intended he should be.

Then he went home to the Black Rogue's wife, and told her that
her husband was dead, and that he was ready to marry her if she
liked. But the woman had been fond of the Black Rogue, thief
though he was, and she shrank from the Shifty Lad in horror, and
set the people after him, and he had to fly to another part of
the country where none knew of his doings.

Perhaps if the Shifty Lad's mother knew anything of this, she
may have thought that by this time her son might be tired of
stealing, and ready to try some honest trade. But in reality he
loved the tricks and danger, and life would have seemed very dull
without them. So he went on just as before, and made friends whom
he taught to be as wicked as himself, till they took to robbing
the king's storehouses, and by the advice of the Wise Man the
king sent out soldiers to catch the band of thieves.

For a long while they tried in vain to lay hands on them. The
Shifty Lad was too clever for them all, and if they laid traps he
laid better ones. At last one night he stole upon some soldiers