"Oh! nothing, except that Brandow has been telling everywhere that one of the horses which broke away from the carriage and tried to make its escape across the mora.s.s was drowned in the attempt."

"Then that is surely the best proof of the impossibility."

"Certainly," replied Wollnow; "and now you must have perfect quiet, or Lauterbach will be very angry. I will come back again in two hours; until then you must sleep undisturbed."

Wollnow spent the two hours in a restless, impatient mood, of which the calm, self-possessed man would not have believed himself capable. He was expecting the young lawyer, who had promised to stop in Prora on his return from Dollan and tell him the result of his investigations.

Herr von Pahlen had left B. two hours before him, and might surely have executed his commission by this time. The expected visitor arrived at last, but without the gendarme Herr von Zadenig had ordered to attend him to give a suitable coloring to the affair.

"This is a very strange business," said Herr von Pahlen. "You know I went ostensibly to take the deposition of the man who drove the gentlemen, Hinrich Scheel; at least he was the princ.i.p.al person, and now would you believe it--"

"The man had disappeared," said Wollnow.

"How did you know?"

"I only thought so; but go on."

"Had actually disappeared," continued Herr von Pahlen, "although half an hour before our arrival he had been seen by the laborers on the estate, and also by Herr Brandow, who had just returned home. He had disappeared and could not be found, although Herr Brandow was kind enough to send men in every direction, who as Herr Brandow himself said, must have found him if--"

"The man had wanted to be found."

"Exactly, but how stupid in the fellow, who, after all, is not to blame, except for having taken for the journey the two worst beasts among the many good ones, in order to spare the carriage-horses. It is from this cause Brandow says, as he now looks at the matter, that the whole misfortune arose. To be sure, if the fellow has really fled--I have left Ruterbusch there for the present, who will arrest him if he makes his appearance--the case a.s.sumes a very different aspect. The fellow will suggest the inference that he either found the money, G.o.d knows how, or took it out of the a.s.sessor's pocket while he was senseless, and now, being conscious of his guilt, fled when he saw us coming--and one can see a long distance over the moor. Brandow, who was very much astonished, said that he should have attributed such a crime to any one rather than this man, who had always been highly esteemed by his father, and since his death had served him faithfully and honestly, but admitted that the sudden disappearance was very mysterious; and after all everything was possible; at any rate, the possibility could not now be denied that the poor devil might have yielded to the great temptation of becoming a rich man at one stroke."

"A devil always feels tempted to do evil, even if he is not poor," said Wollnow.

"So you think he has stolen it," asked the lawyer eagerly.

"I have nothing to do with the matter," replied Wollnow evasively, while his dark eyes flashed with an expression that seemed to say that for all that he did have an opinion in regard to the affair, and a very decided one.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Gotthold had left Prora for Sundin as soon as his health permitted, although Ottilie declared that the Prora air was infinitely better for a convalescent, and he could complete the promised picture just as well here as there. Nay, she had even announced herself ready to give up the present entirely, if their friend could not be induced to stay on any other terms; but her husband had again differed from her in opinion.

"We ought not to try to detain one who wants to go," said he, "or we must be responsible for all the results that may proceed from his stay, and that I have no inclination to do in this case. I am sincerely attached to the young man, as he deserves, and wish him from my heart all the happiness he deserves; but I don't exactly see how he could obtain it upon this path. And in this I have not clung to the views you know I hold regarding marriage. I would be reconciled to all possible concessions, if Gotthold could be helped. But that cannot be done yet.

The only way to remove the obstacles from his path is such a terrible one, that, from my knowledge of his nature, he will shudder to use it if matters ever go far enough. At present they have not reached that point."

"I shall take care not to rack my brains over this mystery," cried Ottilie; "only let me ask one question, to which I beg you to give me a plain, straightforward answer: Does Gotthold know of this expedient?"

"I have not mentioned it to him, but it is possible that, with his penetration, he has. .h.i.t upon it himself."

However little satisfaction Ottilie had derived from this very vague information, she had not been able to doubt that Gotthold really wished to go away, and even her husband's persuasion would hardly have detained him.

Gotthold had hurried off with the impetuosity of one who fancies some magic spell has been cast over him, and strives to break it, cost what it may. And had not an enchanted ring been woven around him from the moment he had entered his native island, and been driven by the companion of his boyhood, without recognizing him, through his native fields? Good Jochen Prebrow! He certainly bore very little resemblance to a Mercury, and yet with him had commenced the succession of marvels which had taken place during the last few days, which had now shown him a heavenly face and now a fiendish grin; now refreshed him with nectar and ambrosia, and anon strewn ashes on his tongue.

"I should be the most miserable creature on earth if you did not understand me!"

The words constantly rang in his ears--the words and the anxious tone in which she had uttered them, as if from the depths of the wretchedness into which she would sink without hope of deliverance, if he did not understand her. She and he! Was not doubt misunderstanding, and were not doubt and despair one and the same thing in this case?

Had he understood her?

It was in the middle of the night, when Gotthold started from a troubled sleep, that the meaning of the mystery had appeared before his soul, as if born of the darkness: there was one thing, and only one, which she could not, dared not do: go while her child remained, remained in the power of this fiend; and by this one thing the fiend had forced her to obey his will. And force her to go he can and will, will apply for the dissolution of a marriage bond she has broken--or would she, the proud woman, deny it? Deny upon oath, in a court of justice, that she had ever rested in the arms of her friend? Repeat in the court-room, before the world, the yes which in his presence she had long since changed to an inflexible no? Very well, then the breach of faith was proved, the marriage dissolved, the child would be taken from the guilty parent, and given to the one who was innocent of blame!

Then, with a sneering laugh, he had repeated to her the shameful formula, with which the next morning, in the presence of her lover, she was to degrade herself to a level with the lowest--must do so if he did not see through the fiendish plot, if he did not understand her!

Thank G.o.d, he understood her now! But how she must have suffered! How she must suffer still!

And was this state of things to continue? Never, never. Now that he had at last penetrated his enemy's base game, he must win the victory. If he had allowed himself to be paid with money for the shame of knowing that his wife's heart belonged to another, how far would not his venality extend? But he would sell everything--honor, wife, and child.

Why had he not disposed of all at once, since he knew any price would be paid that came within the means of the buyer? Did he wish to increase the value of his wares by selling them separately? Or was there, even for him, a limit which he could not pa.s.s? Inconceivable. Or was his hatred towards his rival greater than his avarice? Did he carry the refinement of cruelty so far as only to mutilate his victim, in order to exult in her agony?

It was certainly very probable from such a man, but how long would this spendthrift and gambler remain in a situation to be able to afford himself so costly a luxury? How soon would necessity compel him to sell off his wares? What had the purchaser to do, except practise a little patience and keep the money ready?

The property which Gotthold had hitherto considered of so little importance, suddenly acquired a priceless value in his eyes, and he felt sorely troubled by the thought that he had entrusted the greater part of it to persons whose honesty was by no means beyond question; at least Wollnow, even when their intercourse had been limited to letter-writing, had repeatedly made such hints, and finally in plain words warned him against the house in Stettin; but Gotthold, out of indifference towards the property, and respect for the name of his dead relative, which had been retained by the firm, had not heeded the warning until Wollnow had recently spoken on this point even more urgently, and said that he must withdraw his money, and there was danger in delay. The banker in Sundin who discounted Wollnow's notes had confirmed the statement of his business acquaintance, and offered him his services, but said it would be better to withdraw it to-day than to-morrow.

Gotthold had intended to do so, but his next visit had been to his protege, the young artist Bruggberg, whom he found dying, and in the duties of friendship he had forgotten everything else. Then days and weeks of the most sorrowful emotions had followed, during which he could form no resolution. Now he did not need to form any; now he was eager to make up for the delay; but it was too late.

When he entered the banker's office, the latter came to meet him with a very grave face. News had just come from Stettin that Lenz & Co. had failed, in a most unprecedented, scandalous manner; the creditors would not receive five per cent. "I am sincerely sorry," said Herr Nathanson; "I lose a small sum myself, if one can be said to lose what one has given up all hopes of getting long ago; but you are very heavily involved, if I understand you rightly. Did you not have fifty thousand thalers invested there?"

A short time before Gotthold would merely have shrugged his shoulders at such news, and gone back to his work. Now it came upon him like a thunder-clap. By the sum recently borrowed of Wollnow and his present loss, his property was reduced to about one-fourth of its original amount, and even this, strictly speaking, no longer belonged to him.

Nay, he need not even be overstrict; it was only necessary not to be faithless to the obligations into which he had entered--obligations to struggling young artists, who had based their hopes of the future on his friendship, to widows and children of his deceased companions in art, who but for him would sink into poverty. What was left him if he paid these debts, as his honor, his heart bade him? Nothing! Nothing except the income from his labor. It was enough and more than enough for himself--but for the insatiate avarice of that spendthrift! He would not be put off with promises, nor accept payments on account, not he!

Gotthold stood helpless before a barrier that towered before him in impa.s.sable height, and which neither his anger nor his despair could remove. Of what crime could she be charged, except that young, generous, and confiding, she had allowed herself to be deceived by a villain, and then after long years of terrible, silent agony, had once more breathed freely at the sight of the friend of her youth, and fled to his arms for deliverance? And now she was the guilty one, and this scoundrel, a.s.serting his rights, could mock, torture, kill her unpunished.

Thus anger and love drove him restlessly around in the terrible circle, from which no escape seemed possible unless some means could be found to fasten the crime, before the eyes of all the world, upon the person who was really guilty.

But how could such crimes be proved?

Gotthold started in horror when, while racking his brains over the possibility, he surprised himself in the act of producing this proof.

Should he sully his own and Cecilia's honor by revealing the dark secrets, which, under cover of the night, extended from the master's room at Dollan to the little attic chamber of the maid-servant? Never!

And that the spendthrift and gambler would ever venture out of the dark mole-tracks of vice to the comparatively open road of crime was a thought that had also occurred to him; but there were too many probabilities against it. He did not give the scoundrel credit for the courage that always belongs to crime; besides, in that case, Wollnow would probably have expressed some suspicion; Wollnow, who, apparently out of sympathy for the a.s.sessor, and perhaps also from the impulse of his own nature, which every dark problem irritated, had entered into the affair so eagerly, followed with so much care even the smallest clew that might lead to the discovery of the lost or stolen money. And, after all, was it not a psychological impossibility, that even a Brandow--if he had been directly or indirectly concerned in the robbery--could quietly clasp the hand of the man he had wronged, as he had done just now, when Gotthold met him engaged in a most animated conversation with the convalescent and his wife. True, the matter had been settled by the trustees of the convent of St. Jurgen, in a manner particularly favorable to Sellien. Under the direction of Alma's father, who presided at the meeting, they decided that the a.s.sessor was not in the least to blame, since, as the agent of the convent, he was authorized, nay obliged, to receive the money, and certainly could not be held responsible for what happened to him on Dollan moor, during and after the fall. So the convent merely set down the ten thousand thalers as lost, "and," Sellien's father-in-law said, "if we were requested to withdraw the warrant for the apprehension of Hinrich Scheel, I, for one, should make no objection. The fellow has escaped long ago, and it is neither for our interest, gentlemen, nor that of my son-in-law, to have the stupid story constantly kept before the people."

Brandow laughed heartily when Sellien, in the most amusing manner, gave an account of the last meeting of the trustees, but was unfortunately obliged to take his leave immediately, as he wanted to go away directly after he had attended another consultation of the racing committee: the seventh within a fortnight! He could not get away from the city at all; but what was he to do? It was everything to him to get the resolution to include a piece of marshy ground in the race-course withdrawn. His Brownlock, which had compared very favorably with the other horses yesterday, was as good a steeple-chaser as could be found; but for the very reason that he had so much power in leaping, required firm ground.

"It would be a sin and shame to treat him so; even young Prince Prora has declared it 'indigne.' But I'll pay no forfeit for non-performance of my contract. I'd rather be left sticking in the bog and if necessary drown."

"He is a hero!" Alma Sellien exclaimed, ere Brandow had closed the door behind him, opening her eyes very wide to express her enthusiasm.

"He is a fool," Gotthold muttered to himself, as he walked through the wet, silent streets towards his lodgings; "at least as much fool as knave, and certainly incapable of a deed which, in any sense, requires a man."

On reaching his room, Gotthold found a letter in the firm, even bold hand of Wollnow, now so familiar to him.

The epistle was a lengthy one. Gotthold expected to find news of the Stettin affair, about which a great deal of correspondence had pa.s.sed between him and his friend during the last few weeks. He was mistaken.

His eyes sparkled as, still standing, he glanced rapidly over the pages; then he threw himself into a chair, but instantly started up again, for his resolution was already formed. He hurried to the house where the racing committee met. Herr Brandow, after a violent altercation with one of the gentlemen on the committee, had left the house half an hour before. He went to the hotel where he knew Brandow usually lodged. This time Herr Brandow had not done the hotel the honor; perhaps he had taken a room at the "Golden Lion." The "Golden Lion" knew nothing of Herr Brandow; perhaps the gentleman might be at the "White Rose." Brandow had left the "White Rose" about fifteen minutes before, for home, the head waiter thought, at least he had ordered his luggage to be carried to the ferry-boat.

The next boat left in half an hour. Gotthold had just time to hurry home and put clothing enough to last for a few days into a travelling bag. "It is possible that I may not return for several days," he called to the landlady, and added in an under-tone: "It is possible I may not return at all."