A few hours later, Carl Brandow and Hinrich Scheel were riding over the
moor from the smithy to Dollan, the same road which they had passed
over in the opposite direction not ten minutes before. They rode at a
quick trot, the groom a few dozen paces behind his master, though not
from any feeling of respect, and certainly not because he was worse
mounted. On the contrary, his horse was a magnificent brown animal of
the purest blood, far more valuable than his master's half-breed, so
valuable in fact, that any passer-by would have wondered how such a
noble animal could be ridden upon such an ordinary occasion. But
Hinrich Scheel was no ordinary rider; he noticed every movement of the
horse upon the rough road as carefully as if he were training it upon a
smooth race-course; not the smallest awkwardness was suffered to pass
unnoticed; it had just been guilty of a trick for which it must be
punished; and that was the reason why he had remained a little behind.
Suddenly Carl Brandow drew his rein, and half turning said, over his
shoulder, "Are you perfectly sure you saw him?"
"I told you I passed within a hundred paces of him," answered Hinrich
Scheel sulkily; "and I had plenty of time to look at him too; I believe
he stood up there an hour, as if he had taken root."
"But why did that scoundrel of a Jochen say just now that he didn't
know where he was?"
"Perhaps he doesn't."
"Stuff and nonsense!"
They rode on a short distance side by side; the master staring gloomily
straight before him, and the groom from time to time casting a sly
glance at him from his squinting eyes. Then he urged his horse still
nearer and said:
"Why should he know? I don't know why you are running after him as a
cat chases a mouse."
"Bah!"
"Nor why you came back from Plueggenhof so soon, have ridden the horses
half to death, and gave me a louis-d'or when I told you I had seen
him."
"I'll give you six if you'll tell me where I can find him," cried Carl
Brandow, turning eagerly in his saddle.
"Where you can find him? Why that's easy enough; with the old man in
the beach-house yonder."
"Where I cannot seek him."
"Without having the old man send a bullet through your body. Six
louis-d'or! I think I should wait a long time for the money. But I will
tell you where you can find him without the gold, if you'll let me ride
Brownlock across the bog."
"Are you crazy?"
"I will cross it faster than you can cross the hill. Can I go?"
Before them the road ran in a tolerably steep ascent over a hill, an
outlying spur of the Schanzenberge on the left, which stretched some
distance into the moor. On the right of this hill a broad tract of
marshy land extended across the moor to the forest, where it found an
outlet in the stream whose course to the sea Gotthold had followed that
afternoon. The summit of the hill had undoubtedly sunk into the marsh
years before, for the long mound of earth divided it like a wall, which
at the time it was engulfed had doubtless been very steep, but in the
course of years had been so much washed away by the trickling of water
down the hillside that, it now formed an irregular slope, along whose
upper edge ran the old carriage road, while farther up the acclivity
large stones made the way impassable for vehicles, although horsemen
and pedestrians might wind through. The condition of affairs had
probably not been so bad when Bogislaf and Adolf Wenhof were obliged to
drive their horses along here at full gallop, for now no man in his
senses would pass the spot in a carriage except at a walk, and Jochen
Prebrow was perfectly right when he said that it would have been easy
for him--or any one else--to execute Curt's wild order, and hurl the
young pair down the slope into the bog on their wedding day.
The riders had stopped their horses; Carl Brandow looked up the hill
and over the marsh.
"You are crazy," he said again.
"Crazy or not," exclaimed Hinrich Scheel impatiently, "it must be done.
I went to Salchow this morning to hear what Mr. Thompson had to say.
The fellow always knows everything, and declares that they have
enclosed a piece of marshy ground in the race-course for Brownlock's
special benefit, because they think he is too heavy to cross it, and
you'll be obliged to take a wide sweep around. Well, sir, if you make
the victory so easy for Bessy, Count Grieben and the other gentlemen
will be very well satisfied, and I can be satisfied too."
"You would be no better, suited than I," said Brandow, and then
muttered between his teeth: "everything is all of a piece now."
"Shall I?" said Hinrich Scheel, who probably perceived his master's
irresolution.
"For aught I care."
A ray of joy flitted over Hinrich's ugly face. He turned the horse,
which had long been champing his bit impatiently, and galloped a
hundred paces to the left, to the edge of the marsh, then paused and
shouted:
"Ready?"
"Yes!"
"Now!"
Brownlock sprang forward with a mighty leap, and then flew over the
marshy ground. Again and again his light hoofs broke through the thin
covering of turf, so that the water dashed high into the air, but his
wild speed did not lessen, on the contrary it seemed to increase, as if
the noble animal knew a bottomless gulf was yawning under him, and that
he was running for his own life and that of his daring rider. And now
the quaking soil grew visibly firmer. The deed scarcely believed
possible had been accomplished, Brownlock had crossed the marsh, and
would cross any other. "There is no doubt now," muttered Brandow, "I
can accept every bet; and am I to let Plueggen have the animal for the
paltry sum of five thousand thalers! I should be a fool! Besides, he
probably was not in earnest; but the money must be forthcoming, even if
I should have to steal or commit a murder for it. Holloa!"
He had not turned his eyes from Brownlock, as he rode across the hill
at a gallop without noticing where he was going, until his chestnut,
accustomed to pass this place at a walk, recoiled from the edge so
suddenly that the gravel and pebbles rolled down the slope.
"Holloa!" cried Brandow again, as he soothed the frightened animal, "I
came very near committing the murder on myself."
He rode down the other side of the hill more cautiously, and then
dashed up to Hinrich, who was galloping up and down the edge of the
bog, trying to soothe the snorting racer.
"What do you say to that, sir?"
"That you are a capital fellow; and now, since you have had your own
way, where do you think I shall find him?"
"On the giant's grave," said Hinrich; "I went up there after he had
gone away, and found a thing like a box. There was a little key
sticking in it, and it held his painting tools, as I saw. The box had
been put carefully in the shade; but about six o'clock the sunlight
will fall where the shadow rested this morning, and I think he will be
on the spot at that time."
"And why didn't you tell me so at once?"
"You may be satisfied that I didn't tell you," answered Hinrich,
tenderly patting Brownlock's slender neck. "You wouldn't have known
that you are, I don't know how many thousand thalers richer than you
supposed."
"It is six o'clock," said Brandow, looking at his watch.
"Then ride on and find him. I must take Brownlock home. Shall I tell
Frau Brandow that we shall have a visitor this evening?"
"I don't know that yet myself."
"She would be so delighted."
"Be off, and hold your tongue."
A repulsive grin overspread Hinrich's grotesque face, and he cast a
piercing glance at his master, but made no reply, turned Brownlock, and
rode slowly away.
"I might just as well tell him everything," said Carl Brandow to
himself, as he turned his horse's head and rode over the moor towards
the forest. "I believe the damned fellow sees through me as if I were
glass. No matter; everybody must have some one on whom he can depend,
and certainly I could not have done without him this time. I've no
desire to invite the stupid fellow, but it is one chance more, and I
should be a fool to hesitate long in my present situation."
Carl Brandow dropped the reins on his horse's neck as he rode slowly up
the rough forest path at a walk, and drew from his pocket a letter
which he had found on his return home, half an hour before:
"Dear Sir:--I hasten to inform you that, as I expected and told you, it
was unanimously decided by the convent yesterday not to give an
extension of credit, upon any account, but on the contrary to hold you
to the promise given, both verbally and in writing, and require the ten
thousand on the day it becomes due. I am very sorry to be obliged to
write this to you, after what you told me in confidence; but I firmly
believe that--with your excitable nature--you have considered your
situation more desperate than it really is. In any case, I think it is
better for you to know where you stand, and be able to use the week
that still remains to discover new resources, if the old ones are
really so entirely exhausted.
"I intend to pay you a short visit on the 15th, as I must go to several
estates at that time, and can, if agreeable to you, take the money back
with me and save you the trouble of a journey here. Perhaps my wife
will accompany me. She is very anxious to see Dollan, of whose romantic
situation I have spoken so enthusiastically, and also renew her
acquaintance with her old friends--Frau Wollnow in Prora and your
wife--after an absence of so many years. Do you require any stronger
proof of my conviction that you can separate the messenger from his
message, and that both to you and your lovely wife, I am as ever, Your
sincere friend, Bernhard Sellien."
"P. S. I have just learned something that greatly interests me, and may
perhaps interest you also. Gotthold Weber, the distinguished artist
whose acquaintance I made two years ago in Italy, and with whom you, as
you afterwards informed me, have been intimate ever since your school
days, passed through Sundin to-day on his way to Prora, where he
intends to spend some time. He will undoubtedly seek you out, or
perhaps you will seek him. He belongs to the class of people whom we
are glad to find, even if we are obliged to go out of our way to do
so."
Carl Brandow laughed scornfully as he put the letter back into his
pocket and took up the reins again.
"I believe the devil has his finger in the pie. Ever since I have known
that the man will come here, I have been pursued by the thought that
he, and only he, can save me. Why? Probably because only a fool would
take the trouble, and he is the greatest one I ever knew. And while I
drove by under his very nose this morning, everybody rushes forward to
put me on the track he so carefully conceals. It was plain that the man
Jochen dared not tell where he was, either this morning or just now,
but he belongs to the class of people for whom we are willing to go out
of our way. And what a charming surprise it will be for her, if I can
bring him to her."
Again the rider laughed, even more bitterly than before, then stopped
suddenly, gnawing his under lip with his teeth as he struck with his
riding-whip at the overhanging boughs.
"How pale she grew when the parson blundered out the news. Of course
she did not wish it to be noticed, of course. But unluckily we observe
everything in a person with whom we have enjoyed the pleasure of daily
intercourse for nine or ten years! How she looked when I took my
departure so soon after, as if she knew the cause, and how silent she
was on the way, although I exerted all my powers of pleasing. She no
longer believes in my amiability, nor I either; but I have so often
vexed her about the man that I might surely make him afford her
pleasure for once. And if, as is very probable, the silly swain is
playing at hide and seek more on her account than mine--why it will be
all the easier to lead him by the nose, and the affair will be all the
more amusing. But, to be sure, I must catch him first. Well, we shall
see directly."
Carl Brandow swung himself from the saddle, fastened his horse's bridle
to a tree, and began to ascend the narrow foot-path through the wood to
the giant's grave.