But when the man once more saw this he said to himself , ` What a bad business this is ! Can they all have been so heavy-hearted that they have all three hanged themselves ? No , I ca n't believe that it is anything but witchcraft ! But I will know the truth , ' he said ; ` if the two others are still hanging there it is true but if they are not it 's nothing else but witchcraft . ' So he tied up his ox and ran back to see if they really were hanging there . While he was going , and looking up at every tree as he went , the youth leapt down and took his ox and went off with it . Any one may easily imagine what a fury the man fell into when he came back and saw that his ox was gone . He wept and he raged , but at last he took comfort and told himself that the best thing to do was to go home and take the third ox , without letting his wife know anything about it , and then try to sell it so well that he got a good sum of money for it . So he went home and took the third ox , and drove it off without his wife knowing anything about it . But the robbers knew all about it , and they told the youth that if he could steal this as he had stolen the two others , he should be master of the whole troop . So the youth set out and went to the wood , and when the man was coming along with the ox he began to bellow loudly , just like a great ox somewhere inside the wood . When the man heard that he was right glad , for he fancied he recognised the voice of his big bullock , and thought that now he should find both of them again . So he tied up the third , and ran away off the road to look for them in the wood . In the meantime the youth went away with the third ox . When the man returned and found that he had lost that too , he fell into such a rage that there was no bounds to it . He wept and lamented , and for many days he did not dare to go home again , for he was afraid that the old woman would slay him outright . The robbers , also , were not very well pleased at this , for they were forced to own that the youth was at the head of them all . So one day they made up their minds to set to work to do something which it was not in his power to accomplish , and they all took to the road together , and left him at home alone . When they were well out of the house , the first thing that he did was to drive the oxen out on the road , whereupon they all ran home again to the man from whom he had stolen them , and right glad was the husbandman to see them . Then he brought out all the horses the robbers had , and loaded them with the most valuable things which he could find -- vessels of gold and of silver , and clothes and other magnificent things -- and then he told the old woman to greet the robbers from him and thank them from him , and say that he had gone away , and that they would have a great deal of difficulty in finding him again , and with that he drove the horses out of the courtyard .
After a long , long time he came XXXXX the road on which he was travelling when he came to the robbers .
In about as at if into off that to without