"I like not the looks of this Christopher," and the other faintheart, at one with his comrade, lowered his blade and cried at Simon, to placate him: "If you be indeed penniless, there is no use in molesting you." Simon's staff lay at ease again, balanced in his big fist. He was good-humored with the rogues, being tickled at the thought of their possible plunder--the brace of onions in his bag. "Well reasoned, lads," he laughed. "No logical doctor in Byzantium could have come to a better conclusion. Are you very hot to pick pockets?" He who seemed the leader of the pair seemed surprised at the simplicity of the question. "Every honest man is anxious to push his trade," he affirmed, sagaciously. Simon grinned. "Is this forest your playground?" he pursued. The robber shook his head. "No, no," he said; "we come from Corinth, where we have plied our craft blithely this many a day. Among the light-fingered of that bright city I am Captain Fox, at your service," and the lean, leather-faced rascal made Simon a bow; "and this my comrade goes as Captain Gander," and he pointed to the fat rogue, his companion, who had seated himself on a tree-trunk to await the result of the negotiations. Simon nodded, and queried: "Where are you going, good Captain Fox and good Captain Gander?" "We make for Athens," Captain Fox replied. "There are great doings in Athens--jousts, feasts, dances, banquets, pageants. We should do famously in Athens." The other ruffian took up the tale. "Every knight's purse will leak gold pieces, and the lovely ladies will rain pearls from their petticoats. 'Twill be but stooping to pick them up." Simon leered at the pair maliciously, and his misanthropy hatched a plan. "Though you take no toll of me, yet the devil is your friend to-night, for yonder on the highway at my heels comes, by-and-by, a young gentleman riding all alone, and one that is sure to carry gold in poke." Captain Gander rubbed his plump hands. "St. Nicholas be praised for sending us game," he chuckled. Simon, in malice, dashed the rascals' hopes with a grin. "It may be," he suggested, "that it will prove too proud a quarry for two such gibbet-kites as you to pike at. The featherhead in the fine clothes may be a fool, but I do not think such a brace of barn-filchers would show very fearsome even in a fool's eyes." He that called himself Captain Fox snarled with lips that were as leathern and teeth that were as yellow as his jerkin. "Do not vex your liver for that," he answered. "We have comrades otherwhere in the wood that we will call to our comfort: Captain Rat and Captain Badger, Captain Bat and Captain Chanticleer, no less--valiant captains all." Simon laughed heartily as the fantastic catalogue swelled. "Here is an army out of Noah's ark," he applauded, "with as many generals to it as ever followed Alexander. Ye lack only the leader and the led. Well, go your ways. I give you Golden Jacket for a guerdon."