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.