UNFORESEEN OBSTACLES.
President Nordheim was seated in his office in the capital, in
consultation with Herr Gersdorf, for the consignment of the railway to
the stockholders was now decided upon. Nordheim's resolve to withdraw
from the company after the completion of the undertaking was regretted,
but caused no surprise, for the man's restless activity was well known,
and it was natural that he should have new schemes wherewith to employ
his capital. The glory was his of having devised and executed a bold
project which had opened a new highway for the world.
The engineer-in-chief had promised that all building operations should
be concluded before the beginning of winter, and as soon as they were
finished the transfer was to be made. It would then be the business of
the new management to effect the final preparations for the opening of
the road, which was to take place the ensuing spring. All this had
been settled for months, and Gersdorf, in his capacity of legal
representative of the railway company, had had many consultations with
the president.
"The engineer-in-chief does in fact achieve almost the impossible," he
said, "but yet I cannot understand how he can have all finished by the
end of October. The month has begun, and four weeks seems a very short
time for the completion of what remains to be done."
"If Wolfgang has said the work shall be done, he will keep his word,"
Nordheim rejoined, in a tone of calm conviction. "In such cases he
spares neither himself nor his subordinates, and in this instance he is
also driven by necessity. November brings the snowstorms which are most
dangerous in the Wolkenstein district; it is very important to have the
work finished."
"Hitherto autumn has brought us only late summer weather," the lawyer
observed, as he gathered together some papers scattered on the table.
"I cannot wonder that your daughter lingers in the mountains and seems
to have no idea of returning."
"She, with Frau von Lasberg, will probably remain there for some weeks
yet. The mountain-air has worked miracles for Alice; she is almost
entirely well, and Dr. Reinsfeld advises her to extend her stay until
the weather changes. I owe a debt of gratitude to your cousin, and I
greatly regret that he is to leave Oberstein. I hear he has another
medical position in prospect in--what is the name of the place?"
"Neuenfeld."
"Right,--Neuenfeld. The name had escaped me. I cannot wonder at the
young physician for desiring a wider sphere of action; but, as I said,
we all regret that he is going so far away. Wolfgang in especial will
miss him much."
The words sounded kindly, as though the president were really grateful
to his daughter's physician and regretted losing him. Gersdorf, who had
no reason to suspect his sincerity, was quite impressed.
"Benno writes me that he shall not leave for his new post before the
end of a couple of weeks," he said. "He stipulated for this delay that
he might install his successor at Oberstein. Therefore we shall have an
opportunity of seeing each other again, for I must go to Heilborn next
week. The suit of the parishes of Oberstein and Unterstein against the
railway for damage done to their forests in its construction is to be
decided, and I represent the company of course."
"Then we shall meet there," said Nordheim. "I am going to take a short
holiday, and then return to town with my family. I have been
overweighted with business of late, and am sadly in need of rest. I
shall hope to see you at our villa; you will not forgot to come?"
"Certainly not," said Gersdorf, rising to take leave.
When he had gone the president rang for lights, for it was growing
dark, and then, seating himself at his writing-table, he became
absorbed in the papers lying there,--they must have been of a very
important nature, for he examined them with the greatest care, his face
expressing intense satisfaction as he did so, until it finally broke
into a smile.
"Everything arranged," he murmured. "It will be a brilliant
transaction. The figures are rather boldly combined, it is true, but
they will do their duty, and as soon as Wolfgang has approved them, and
affixed his name to the entire estimate, it will be accepted without
demur. And that man Reinsfeld is fortunately disposed of. I thought he
could not refuse the bait of such a position. Neuenfeld is far enough
away, and he can live there comfortably to the end of his days.--What
is it? I do not wish to be disturbed again this evening."
The last words were spoken to a servant who entered at the moment, and
who now announced, "Herr Elmhorst has arrived."
"The engineer-in-chief?" Nordheim asked, surprised.
"Arrived a moment ago, Herr President."
Nordheim rose quickly, and was about to go to meet the new-comer,
but Wolfgang appeared at that moment on the threshold in his
travelling-dress.
"Have I startled you, sir, by my unexpected arrival?" he asked.
"Rather; you sent me no telegram," the president replied, motioning to
the servant to withdraw. As soon as the door closed behind him he
asked, hastily, and evidently disturbed, "What has happened? Anything
the matter with the railway?"
"No; I left everything in perfect order."
"And Alice is well, I hope?" This last question was far more composedly
put than had been its predecessor.
"Quite well; you have no cause for anxiety."
"Thank heaven! I was afraid something unfortunate had occurred to
account for your sudden appearance. What brings you here so
unexpectedly?"
"A matter of business, which I could not explain in writing," said
Wolfgang, laying aside his hat. "I preferred to see you personally,
although I could ill be spared from the railway."
"Well, then, let us talk over your business," replied the president,
who was always ready to discuss affairs. "We shall be entirely
undisturbed this evening. But first take some rest. I will give orders
to have your rooms----"
"Thank you, sir," Elmhorst interrupted him, "but I should like to
have the business that has brought me here settled at once; it is
urgent,--at least for me. We are quite alone here?"
"We are; I generally insure myself privacy in my own apartments. But
for security's sake you can close the door of the next room also."
Wolfgang complied, and then returned. As he advanced into the circle of
light from the lamp his face looked pale and agitated. His pallor could
hardly be the effect of fatigue from the long, unbroken ride; there was
a frown on his brow, and his dark eyes had a stern, almost menacing
expression.
"Your business must be important," the president observed, as he sat
down, "or you would hardly have come yourself. Well, then.--But will
you not be seated?"
The young man paid no heed to the request, but remained standing, with
his hand resting on the back of a chair, as he began, in an apparently
calm tone, "You sent me over the estimates and calculations which are
to serve as the basis of the transfer of the railway to the
stockholders."
"I did. You remember I told you that I would spare you the details of
these calculations. You have enough to do in attending to the technical
conduct of the work. All you have to do is to look over and approve the
estimates, your word as engineer-in-chief being decisive."
"I am aware of that,--entirely aware of my responsibility in the
matter, and therefore I wish to put a question to you: Who made these
estimates?"
Nordheim glanced in surprise at his future son-in-law; the question
evidently astonished him.
"Who? Why, my clerks and those who understand such matters."
"That is not what I mean, sir. They simply made up the figures from the
memoranda and calculations furnished them. What I want to know is,
whose were those memoranda?--who put down the sums which are the basis
of the estimates? It cannot possibly have been yourself."
"Indeed? And why not, may I ask?"
"Because all the accounts are falsified!" Wolfgang said, coldly but
very decidedly.
"Falsified? What do you mean?"
"Is it possible that it escaped you?" Elmhorst asked, never taking his
eyes from the president. "I discovered it at a glance. All the
buildings are estimated at almost double the cost of their erection,
and stations are brought into the calculations which do not exist. The
obstacles and catastrophes that impeded us are reckoned up in an
incredible fashion, as causing an outlay of hundreds of thousands where
not half the amount was expended. In short, the whole sum exceeds by
some millions the actual cost of the undertaking."
Nordheim listened in silence, but with a frown, to this agitated
explanation, by which, however, he seemed more surprised than offended;
at last he said, coldly, "Wolfgang, I really do not understand you."
"Nor did I understand your letter requiring me to approve and sign that
estimate. I thought, and I still think, that there is some mistake, and
I wanted to ask you personally about it. I trust you can explain it to
me."
The president shrugged his shoulders, but maintained the same cool,
composed tone, as he replied, "You are a capital engineer, Wolfgang,
but that you have no talent for business is quite clear. I hoped we
should understand each other in this matter without many words, but,
since that does not seem to be the case, we must come to an
explanation. Do you suppose that I intend to withdraw from this
undertaking with loss?"
"With loss? In any case you receive back your capital with interest."
"A transaction that brings in no more than that is to be reckoned as a
losing one," said Nordheim. "I did not imagine you such a novice in
business matters as to require to be told this. We have here a chance
to make a profit,--a considerable profit. The railway, in fact, belongs
to me. I called it into existence, my capital has been principally
expended in its construction, the entire risk has been mine. I venture
to think that you will not dispute my right to dispose of my property
at any price I think fit."
"If that price is to be gained only by the means you have adopted, I do
most decidedly dispute the right you speak of. Should the company
receive the railway under such conditions, its bankruptcy will be
certain. Even if the road be employed to the fullest extent it cannot
bring in a sufficient income to indemnify it approximately for the
amount of loss sustained; the entire enterprise must either go to ruin,
or fall into the hands of some unprincipled schemer."
"And how does that concern us?" Nordheim asked, calmly.
"How does it concern us?" Elmhorst broke forth, indignantly. "To have
the work which you devised, to which I have devoted my best energies,
at the head of which stand our united names, go miserably to ruin or be
an instrument in the hands of swindlers? It concerns me deeply, as I
trust I shall be able to show you."
The president arose with an impatient wave of his hand: "Pray spare me
such bursts of declamation, Wolfgang. They really are out of place in a
business discussion."
The young man drew himself up; all emotion vanished from his face,
giving place to an expression of cool contempt, and his voice was every
whit as cold as the president's own as he replied, "I shall not content
myself with mere declamation, as you will find, sir. Let me ask once
for all, calmly and briefly, who furnished the figures upon which the
estimates you sent me are based?"
"I, myself," was the quiet reply.
"And you expected me to approve them and put my name to them?"
"I expect every thing of my future son-in-law," Nordheim declared, with
sharp emphasis.
"Then you have misunderstood me. I cannot sign the estimates."
"Wolfgang!" There was an evident menace in Nordheim's tone.
"I will not sign them, I say. I never will lend my name to a
falsehood."
"You dare to use such language to me?" the president exclaimed,
angrily.
"What other language could be used if I should sanction estimates which
I know to be false?" Wolfgang asked, with bitterness. "I am the
engineer-in-chief, my word is decisive for the company and for the
stockholders, who are utterly ignorant in the matter. The
responsibility is mine alone."
"Your word could never be questioned," Nordheim interposed. "I had no
idea you were such a martinet. You know nothing of business, or you
would see that I, in my position, could not possibly venture what I do
were there any danger. The figures are so combined that it is
impossible to prove an--error from them, and I have explanations
prepared for every emergency. No one can blame either you or myself."
At this assertion a smile of infinite scorn hovered upon Elmhorst's
lips: "That was certainly the last thing to occur to me! We do indeed
misunderstand each other. You fear discovery, I fear the fraud. In
short, I will have nothing to do with a lie, and if I refuse my
signature it cannot be told."
The president walked close up to him; he was now much agitated, and his
voice betrayed extreme irritation: "Your expressions are, to say the
least, strong. Do you suppose you can dictate to me? Have a care,
Wolfgang. You are not yet my son-in-law; the knot is not yet tied which
was to link you to me. I can cut it at the last moment, and you are too
clever not to know all that you would lose with my daughter's hand."
"That means that you make it a condition?"
"Yes,--your signature! Either that--or----!"
As Nordheim spoke thus explicitly, Wolfgang's eyes were fixed gloomily
on the ground. He pondered all the consequences of the president's
'Either that--or----!' he was indeed 'clever enough' to know that
millions would be lost to him with his betrothed,--the wealth, the
brilliant future for which he had bartered his happiness. The moment
had come in which he was required to barter something more, and
suddenly memory recalled that hour on the Wolkenstein in the moonlit
midsummer night when this moment had been sadly foretold him: 'The
price now is your freedom; in future it may perhaps be your honour!'
Nordheim interpreted the young man's silence after his own fashion; he
laid his hand on Wolfgang's shoulder, and said, in a gentler tone, "Be
reasonable, Elmhorst. We should both lose by a separation, and it is
the last thing that I desire; but I can and must require my son-in-law
to go hand in hand with me, and to make my interests his own. You give
me your signature, and I will go surety for everything else. We will
both forget this conversation, and divide the profit, which will make
you a wealthy, independent man."
"At the price of my honour!" Wolfgang exclaimed, in hot indignation.
"No, by heaven, it shall never come to that! I ought to have known long
ago whither your rule of life, your business principles, would lead,
for since my betrothal to your daughter you have thrown off all
reserve; but I chose to see and to know nothing, because I was fool
enough to imagine that, in spite of it all, I could pursue my own path
and do as I chose. Now I see that there is no halting in the downward
course, that he who leagues himself with you cannot keep his honour
unstained. I have been ambitious and reckless--yes. I reckoned upon our
association in this undertaking as you did, and conceded more to it
than my conscience could entirely justify, but I never will stoop to
deceive. If you believed me ready to be a scoundrel for the sake of
your wealth,--if the future of which I have dreamed is to be purchased
only at such a price,--let it go. I will have none of it!"
He stood erect, and with flashing eyes hurled his refusal at the
president. There was something grand and overwhelming in this stormy
outbreak from the man who thus at last threw off all the fetters of
petty self-interest which had held him bound so long, whose better
nature asserted itself and trampled down the alluring temptation. He
knew that he was resigning the wealth which would make him independent
of Nordheim's favour; that with it he should be free and unfettered to
realize all his golden dreams of the future. There had been an instant
of hesitation, and then he thrust the tempter from him and redeemed his
honour!
The president stood frowning darkly. He perceived now that he had been
mistaken in supposing that he should find in the ambitious young
engineer a willing instrument, a nature as unscrupulous as his own, but
he had no mind to break entirely with the son-in-law he had chosen. He
would lose most by the separation; in the first place, all the profit
which Wolfgang's signature would insure him would be destroyed, and
moreover, he said to himself, it would be dangerous to make an enemy of
one so thoroughly acquainted with his schemes. It could not be; a
breach must be avoided, at least for the present.
"Let us drop this matter for to-day," he said, slowly. "It is too
important, and we are neither of us in a mood to discuss it calmly. I
am going to my mountain-villa in a week, and until then you can take
the affair into consideration. I will not accept your present hasty
decision."
"You will be obliged to accept it at the end of the week," Wolfgang
declared. "My answer will be precisely the same then. Let a true
estimate be made of the cost of the railway, at its highest valuation,
and I will not refuse to give it my sanction. I never will sign my name
to the present one. That is my final word. Farewell!"
"You are going back immediately?" Nordheim asked.
"Certainly; the next express leaves in an hour, and the business that
brought me here is concluded. My presence is indispensable at my post."
He bowed and took his leave, not after the familiar fashion of the
future son-in-law, but formally, as a stranger, and the president felt
the significance of his manner.
When Elmhorst reached the spacious vestibule he found there two
servants awaiting him. His rooms had been prepared for him, and the
lackeys asked for further orders, but he waved them aside: "Thanks, I
am going directly back again, and shall not use the rooms."
The men looked surprised. This was indeed a hurried visit. Would not
Herr Elmhorst have the carriage to drive to the station?
"No; I prefer to walk." As he spoke, Elmhorst once more glanced towards
the broad staircase leading to the gorgeous apartments in the upper
story, and then he left the house where for more than six months he had
been regarded as a son, and upon which he was now turning his back
forever.
Outside, the October evening was cold and damp; the skies were
starless, the air was full of mist, and a keen blast heralded the
approach of winter. Involuntarily Wolfgang drew his travelling-cloak
closer about his shoulders, as he strode forward at a rapid pace.
It was over! He was perfectly aware of it, and he also clearly
perceived Nordheim's desire to avoid a sudden breach for fear lest the
man so lately his confidant should expose him by way of revenge. A
contemptuous smile curled the young man's lip. Such a fear was quite
superfluous; any such act was entirely beneath him. His thoughts
wandered to where they had rarely been of late,--to his betrothed.
Alice would not suffer if the betrothal were dissolved. She had
accepted his suit without opposition in compliance with her father's
wish, and she would bend to his will with the same docility should he
sever the tie. There had never been any talk of love between them;
neither would be conscious of loss.
Wolfgang drew a deep breath. He was free again, free to choose; he
could pursue his proud, lonely path, dependent only upon his own
courage and capacity, but the voice which had roused him from the
stupor of egotism and ambition would never again sound in his ears, the
lovely face would never again smile upon him. That prize belonged to
another, and, whatever he might achieve in the future, his happiness
had been bartered away,--lost forever.