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 Assessor'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 coarse grass 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 Assessor 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 morass, 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 morass; 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
nobody 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 Assessor, 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 buttoned 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 morass 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 God 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 passage, 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
cocked 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."