What the Swallow Sang Part 34

CHAPTER x.x.xI.

There was a wild terror in Hinrich's look and gesture, and the rattling tone of his harsh voice.

"What is the matter?" cried Gotthold, shaking the man, who still stood before him as if petrified, rudely by the shoulder.

The powerful grasp produced a strange, mysterious effect upon the man.

He stretched his long arms towards the dark sky, shook them wildly, waved them up and down, and then threw himself on his knees, bracing his left hand against the sand, and striking several furious blows with the right, as if he wished to murder some one he held by the throat; then he rose and shrieked, in answer to Gotthold's question:--

"What's the matter? I wish I had him!"

"Whom?"

"He lied; he said you were dead, and they wanted to arrest me, and imprisonment for life would be the least punishment; and did I wish to bring misfortune upon him, who had always been such a good master to me, and would give me money enough to last all my life? But when he came that night to the giant's grave, where I had concealed myself, he only gave me five hundred thalers; he had no more, not another shilling; he was obliged to give the rest to the lawyer, as bail for his appearing at any moment if he was summoned. And all that was a lie, wasn't it, sir, all a lie, every word?"

"All," said Gotthold, "all, every word."

"All, every word," repeated Hinrich, as if he could not yet understand it. "Why did he need to lie? I should certainly have gone if it had been necessary--for him. I did it for him, and as for the money, I had it in my hand. I could have done what I chose with it, and I gave it to him. Not a thaler was lacking; it was the whole package, just as I took it out of the a.s.sessor's pocket."

"You did it for him," said Gotthold; "did you also do it by his orders?"

"By his orders?" replied Hinrich, "what need was there of orders? I did it because--because--I don't know why; but he rode on my back until he got his pony, and then I taught him to ride; he learned all, all he knows from me; and if Brownlock wins and brings him in a pile of money, whom has he to thank for it but Hinrich Scheel?"

While speaking in this manner, they walked on over the downs, Gotthold and Hinrich leading the way, while Jochen Prebrow followed behind, though not so far that he could not overtake them in a few bounds if necessary. It had grown very dark, so dark that they could scarcely see the wild rabbits which glided through the coa.r.s.e gra.s.s at their feet, and a large owl soaring towards them fluttered aside in terror, as Hinrich, after a pause, continued with a savage imprecation:--

"I did it, because I knew how hard up he was. He had five thousand thalers to pay Herr Redebas the following noon, and if he did not pay them he might be refused a place in the races. I knew that--I have been at them often enough, and know as much about the rules as any of the gentlemen--and I knew that he would make no fuss afterwards, although he had said nothing about it, and I believe had not even thought of the money the Herr a.s.sessor carried in his pocket. But I had thought of it all day long, and even looked out the place as we drove to Dollan. It had long overhung the mora.s.s, and the rain had made long cracks in it, so I said to myself: 'If they drive back to-night, and the carriage is turned out of the road here, the earth will break off, and the whole thing will slide down, and that's an accident which might happen to the best driver, on a stormy night such as this will be.'"

"Only you might easily have gone down with the rest," said Gotthold.

"You mean, if I hadn't jumped out of the carriage at the right time?

Bah, sir! It's no harder than to get off a horse that is running away, when one sees it is going to fall. I jumped out at the right time, and then the ground broke away, and slid down with a thundering, crashing sound, and then all was perfectly still, except that one or two small pieces cracked off and rattled down the slope, and the tempest swept howling and moaning over the mora.s.s; but that was nothing new to me, and it was perfectly still below.

"I stood up and looked down, wondering how far the land-slide had probably gone. If the marl had held together well, it had doubtless fallen into the bog, and with its speed and weight had been buried n.o.body knows how deep; but it had jolted violently on the way, and I had heard it; the whole carriage must have broken to pieces, and in that case everything might still be lying on the edge. I must know how matters were, so I made up my mind to climb down.

"But it was hard work; I could not find the right place in the dark, and nearly fell myself; at last, however, I reached the bottom of the slope."

"Well!"

"Well, then I groped around there; the moon had also broken through the clouds a little, and I soon found the carriage, or what was left of it; it was smashed into small pieces, and one horse was lying among them; it had broken its neck and was dead as a door-nail. Close beside the horse lay the Herr a.s.sessor, but he was still breathing, and when I turned him on his back he groaned heavily, and then twitched several times; he would die without my help, and I had already taken the money out of his pocket, and b.u.t.toned up the coat again so that it might look as if he were lying just as he fell."

"Did you not look for me?"

"I looked, but I didn't find you; he told me afterwards that you were lying half-way down the slope, and besides the time I was crawling about in the dark seemed very long, and there was a rustling among the reeds, and then the other horse, which had broken loose from the carriage and run out into the mora.s.s with the pole--stupid beast!--began to scream, and it is a pitiful sound to hear a dying animal shriek in its agony, and so I came up again on dry land."

"And was Herr Brandow already there?"

"How do you know that?" asked Hinrich in astonishment.

"I only imagined so."

"No, he wasn't there then, but he came directly after, and I was furious because he had taken Brownlock; besides, what business had he there? I told him so too, and said he must go back at once; but he wouldn't; people had seen him ride away, and where should he say he had been when this story came out? I had offered him the package, but he knocked it out of my hand, and it lay on the ground between us, and I said it might stay there. 'So it can for aught I care,' said he; 'I didn't do it for the money;' and then he asked what had become of you?

I gave him a short answer, for I was angry, and then he said I must turn back at once, and--and--'Do it alone, sir,' said I, 'I'll have nothing more to do with it.' He begged my pardon, but I wouldn't make up, out of pure ill-temper, and now he again grew anxious about what account he could give of his whereabouts during this time, till I said to him: 'As you have Brownlock under you, sir, you can just as well ride across the bog, and then you will get to Neuenhof as soon as if you had ridden away from Dollan directly after the gentlemen: I mean, of course, over the road.' He saw this too, but his courage failed, although he generally had plenty for such things, and I myself had ridden across the bog a week before under his own eyes; so I said to him: 'Then do what you choose, I must go and knock up the Prebrows now, or I shall come in for all the blame,' and then he rode away, and it was a splendid sight--I could see it distinctly, for the moon had come out--and the water dashed up under the hoofs--yes, it was a splendid sight to see how he rode."

Hinrich walked on a few steps in silence; suddenly he stopped short.

"And the way he has treated me is a sin and a shame; may G.o.d punish me if I don't pay him for it. He promised me ten per cent, of all Brownlock won, and he had ten thousand in his book then; but it may easily amount to as much again. And he knows I would give one of my hands to see Brownlock on the course, and have people point to me and say: 'That's Hinrich Scheel, who trained him; he understands those things better than all the English jockeys.' O Lord! Lord! and I'm to do all this for him, while he leaves me for a whole week in this kennel of Rahnkes' and I'm to come to Goritz the night before the boat, in which I'm to take pa.s.sage, sails for Mecklenburg, and I must meet him in Goritz woods, and get the two thousand he promised me, but he was not there, and probably thought, 'He must go tomorrow, with or without the money;' but I'll pay him for it, by Heavens! I'll pay him for it."

"That would cost you quite as much as him," replied Gotthold; "or do you think the law will set you free because you did everything solely for your master's sake?"

"The law, sir! You won't deliver me up to the law," cried Hinrich.

"And if I should, could you blame me for it?"

Hinrich stopped short, but there was no possibility of escape. Jochen Prebrow's heavy hand rested on his shoulder, and Gotthold had just c.o.c.ked the pistol, whose barrel glittered in the light of the nearest beacon, of which they were already within a very short distance. A single cry would summon the watchman, if he chose to push matters to extremities.

"I am in your power, sir," said he, "and I am not. Neither you nor any other man shall compel me to repeat what I have just told you before a court of justice. I may have imposed upon you with a false tale."

"That excuse will not avail you much, Hinrich; we have proofs that the money was not lost, but stolen and placed in your master's hands."

And in a few words he told him the contents of Wollnow's letter, adding what he had just learned from old Boslaf, that while searching the bog--to the great astonishment of the men--they had followed the hoof-prints of a horse several hundred paces; and Hinrich's denial would produce little effect in opposition to this and other well-established facts.

Hinrich had listened attentively.

"I still think you won't give me up to the law, sir," said he; "it's an ugly story, and the less said about it the better, for--for all concerned; but if it must be, why, sir, we poor men are never much better treated than dogs, and these last few days I have fared even worse; so I don't mind going to jail, if he only comes too."

It was too dark for Gotthold to see the cruel smile that played around the man's thick lips, as he uttered the last words.

"I think I can spare you the jail," he answered, "if you will promise to make no attempt at flight, and obey all my orders implicitly. I will require nothing unreasonable."

"I know that, sir," said Hinrich, "and here is my hand."

The hand that rested in Gotthold's was as hard as iron; but he thought he felt in its nervous pressure that the man intended to keep his word.

"Come, then," said he, "and, Jochen, show us a path by which we can reach your house without being seen, if possible."

CHAPTER x.x.xII.

"My poor dear friend! To think we must part again; it is really too hard. But don't be discouraged! Gretchen will get well, and everything will come out right at last."

Ottilie Wollnow said these words in the antechamber of her house in Sundin, to Gotthold, with whom she had just left the room where Cecilia and old Borlaf were watching Gretchen's feverish slumber.

"Everything," repeated Ottilie, as she saw that the look of deep sorrow on Gotthold's expressive face remained unchanged.

"You do not really think so yourself," he replied, gratefully pressing Ottilie's hand; "if the child dies, Cecilia, I fear, will never get over it, no matter how much, how entirely, that scoundrel is to blame; at any rate it will be another of those sad, torturing memories, which, according to her own confession to you, separate her from me forever."