Egholm went up to the station in a great state of excitement every
time a train was due from Odense. There had come a wondrous letter in
a blue envelope from the Brethren there--a document to the effect that
the community had voted him a gift of money. It would be delivered in
person within a few days, by Evangelist Karlsen.
The letter lay on the floor, as if deposited by mysterious means from
above. And certainly no one had heard the postman come.
Egholm gave thanks to God. That was a thing which should be done to the
full, and preferably a little before the fulfilment of his prayer.
For the first few days he talked a great deal about the practice he had
gradually acquired in the art of prayer. But as Karlsen still failed to
appear, he grew silent, and began going up to meet the trains. And then
at last, on the eighth day, just as he came home tired and discouraged
from the station, there sat the Evangelist himself in the parlour.
He, too, looked as if some angel had brought him on wings through the
air, though, as a matter of fact, this was not the case. He explained
himself that he had come by train from Jutland.
Egholm forgot to take off his coat; he sat down opposite his ancient
enemy, lacking words with which to begin. And, truth to tell, he
was humiliated and abashed after all at having to accept a gift,
in view of what had passed. What made things worse was that the
Evangelist was grown so surpassingly elegant in his dress. No more
butcher-boots--nothing like it. Striped trousers he wore, and a
smart-looking collar and cuffs. True, the last were of indiarubber,
but still.... His moustache was simply beyond description, and the
blue-black wether-eyes glittered like globes of lightning. Under his
chair was a handbag, undeniably new, but, of course, ... no, of course,
it couldn’t be the money in that.
Karlsen looked round the room, and thrust his shoulders back, as if
preparing to speak, but still he did not seem to find the suitable
“word.”
What was he to say? As for the gift, that could wait a little. A sermon
would hardly do either, though he was known to be a first-rate hand at
that. Suppose he were to launch out with a suitable text? Yes, that
would be the thing!
Karlsen went about, so to speak, with his pockets full of texts, which
he used, now to smite the head of an unruly disciple, now to scatter
like golden largesse among the poor. He had, too, long extracts from
Revelations, which could be flung like lassos to entangle the ungodly,
cooling draughts from the Sermon on the Mount, and blood and fire from
the Mosaic portions of the Old Testament. But it always took a certain
degree of opposition before he could be brought to use them.
Egholm asked in a very general way how the Brotherhood was getting on.
“First-rate,” said Karlsen, with an absent yawn--“first-rate,” and
relapsed into silence.
Egholm could not keep away from the scene of the crime. He stammered
out:
“Karlsen, you mustn’t regard my attack--my somewhat over-zealous
attack, perhaps--that evening, you know, as--as evidence of enmity
towards the Brethren. Not in the least. There was much in the
Brotherhood that I greatly appreciated. A certain simplicity.... No;
if hard words were said, they were due to a momentary indignation over
the refusal to give me a plain, straightforward answer to my definite
question, regarding that text in the Epistle to the Hebrews, which--at
any rate to my humble mind--expressly annuls all giving of tithes.”
Karlsen gloated awhile over Egholm’s downcast eyes and the tip of his
tongue creeping over dry lips. He wrinkled up his forehead deeply, and
said, with that crafty, ingratiating smile that was so thoroughly his
own:
“An answer, my dear friends--why, of course. Nothing easier. You shall
have it to-day. I’ve a big fat book here in my bag; you can read it
there to your heart’s content....”
“A book?...”
“Yes. Half a minute, I’ll show you. Six _kroner’s_ the price of it, but
there’s edifying reading for more than twice the money. Guaranteed. A
big fat book, bound cloth boards. Let me show you.”
“No, no. I’ll take your word for it. No doubt it’s excellent. But ...
er ... well....”
It would be sheer madness to offend Karlsen now, and send him away with
the three or four hundred _kroner_, but still, there was no sense in
spending the six _kroner_ if it could be helped. Egholm knew the book
well enough himself--a rambling translation from the English.
“But ... er ... well, you know, there was nothing said about that on
the night. If only they’d given me an answer in some way or other, I’m
sure I’d never have resigned from the Brotherhood at all.”
“You never did resign from the Brotherhood!”
“Well, no, not resigned exactly ... that is to say....”
Egholm sat crushed and despairing in the arm-chair, letting Karlsen do
with him as he pleased.
“No, my dear good man, what possessed you to say so? If you weren’t
a disciple still, of course we shouldn’t have troubled to help you.
Nothing to do with us, you understand. As it is, why, we hung up a box
for you at the meeting.”
Egholm sighed inaudibly, and inwardly reduced his claim to half. So
they had hung up a collecting box for him. Well, well. He knew those
boxes. There were a number of them--hung along the wall like a row
of young birds with hungrily gaping mouths. He remembered how the
Evangelist used to draw attention to them discreetly before closing
the proceedings for each evening--quite unnecessarily, by the way,
seeing that Karlsen senior, the Angel of the flock, stood with hand
outstretched in farewell, just where the boxes began.
“And now, my dear friends, we have heard the Word, for our souls’ good,
and that we can take with us in our hearts. And, in return, let us not
forget to put something in the boxes. No one calls upon you to give
much. When each gives what he can, it is enough. The first is for the
hall, that we may have a place to meet in; the second is for light and
firing--neither of these can be got for nothing, my dear friends--and
the third is for myself--I need hardly remind you, my dear friends,
that I cannot live on air. The fourth is for members of the Brotherhood
in distress, and the fifth towards the purchase of a library. Put a
little in each, and your conscience will be at ease!”
On tithe nights the boxes were not in evidence.
Egholm remembered that according to an unwritten law it was permissible
to pass by the boxes for Brethren in distress and for the library. How
would it have been with the sixth in the row, hung up for Egholm in the
throes of poverty?
“Did any of them give anything?” he asked humbly.
“Oh, it brought in quite a lot,” said Karlsen comfortingly. “Quite
a decent little sum. You see”--he leaned forward confidentially and
plucked at Egholm’s coat collar, almost stupefying him with his
tobacco-laden breath--“I got the old man to stand beside it!”
He gave Egholm a friendly shake, and laughed in a spluttering shower.
“But there’s one condition. I may as well tell you that first as last.
The condition of your receiving this gift is, that your wife becomes
a member of the Brotherhood. Both of you, you understand--or no gift!
For it’s her fault we’ve had all this bother about you. Yes, I’ve found
that out. She’s from Aalborg. I know those obstinate Jutland folk!”
“My wife!” cried Egholm. New difficulties towered before him at the
idea, but, at the same time, the value of the gift seemed to increase.
He sprang to his feet, and ran to the kitchen door.
“Well, there you are. Now you can talk it over with her,” said Karlsen,
with a laugh, leaning his head back and showing the scar of his
“glands” and his ill-shaven throat. “But, look here, tell her at the
same time I’m staying till the eight o’clock train, so you’ll have to
find me a bite of something to eat. You know what it says about us
Evangelists: we’re to have neither scrip nor staff, but take that which
is set before us.”
Fru Egholm was busy plaiting hair at the kitchen table. Her husband
could see from the way she tugged at her work that she had followed the
conversation in the next room.
“Never as long as I live,” she said firmly.
A catastrophe seemed imminent, but Egholm was so destitute of physical
or moral force at the moment that he contented himself with a
threatening gesture.
“And as for supper,” she went on, “wild horses wouldn’t give us more
than we’ve got, and that’s no more than bread and dripping and a rind
of cheese.”
“Nothing hot--not even a cup of tea?”
“Only the clove.”
“_Only_ the clove! As if that wasn’t good enough.”
Clove tea was one of Egholm’s minor inventions. One day when the
tea and coffee canisters were as empty as his empty purse, he had
manufactured an aromatic beverage from cloves and hot water. He himself
drank it thereafter in quantities and with relish, and Sivert was for a
time in his good books merely on account of the audible “Aaah!” which
he gave when it was poured out. Fru Egholm, too, conceded that it was
certainly cheap--a packet of cloves costing two _øre_ sufficed for a
whole month. But Hedvig would not touch it.
“Good enough for that young humbug, yes.”
Once more Egholm felt his hands itching with murderous instincts, but
when the tension was at its height, a spark flew over to some nerve of
humour. He bent down almost double, put one hand to his mouth like a
funnel, and whispered in his wife’s ear:
“Sh! Remember, his father’s an Angel!”
The Evangelist closed his puffy eyes reflectively for a moment when
Egholm returned and stated what was the menu for the day.
“H’m. I’ll stay, all the same,” he said. And added a moment after: “If
there’s eggs, I like them hard boiled.”
“Hard boiled--yes, yes,” said Egholm, precisely in the manner of a
waiter, and disappeared into the kitchen once more.
“I never heard the like--that rascally scamp ... thinks we can dig up
eggs out of the ground--and that in December! Why, only to ask at the
grocer’s they’d think we were mad. Eggs, indeed! _Eggs--on credit!_ No,
as long as we can get what’s barely needful. Why....”
But Egholm, with great ends in view, wasted little time in talk. He
went out himself, and returned five minutes later with a bag of
eggs and a lump of sausage, which he set down triumphantly on the
kitchen table. Thus supper was provided of a kind to exceed Karlsen’s
expectations, and set him in good humour.
Both laughed, Karlsen, however, the louder, when the host’s egg was
found to be bad. As for the clove tea, Karlsen, like Hedvig, did not
find it to his taste. He explained that he liked something with a
little more colour, his taste and smell having suffered through smoking.
Then, at a suitable moment, Egholm said:
“My wife says she won’t come into the Brotherhood at any price--not
just at the moment, that is to say. But perhaps later, I’ve no doubt
... that is to say....”
And he waited for the answer with the sweat standing out on his
forehead.
“Oh, well, never mind. Hang the condition. We’ll leave it out.”
Egholm could have knelt at his feet.
Karlsen went on to tell of the Brotherhood and its doings. Everything
was going on first-rate. Fru Westergaard had got dropsy, and
there was every likelihood--here Karlsen clicked his tongue in
anticipation--every likelihood of her bequeathing them a whole heap of
money. The Angel went to see her practically every day, and, in case of
need, the Prophet from Copenhagen would come too.
“Father’s in touch with a heap of them, you know. By letter. He got a
letter the other day from John the Apostle. He’s in London.”
“John the Apostle? You don’t mean.... Is that....”
“Exactly. He lives in London. Don’t you know it’s written: ‘If he tarry
till I come, what is that to thee?’ Yes, he’ll be here all right, up
to the day of the coming again. Father’s got his address, but he keeps
himself quiet, you understand, mostly. And Father doesn’t say where he
is, but I managed to get hold of it, all the same. I sent him a picture
post card from Veile only yesterday.”
Egholm ran in to borrow a pipe from Marinus. On the way he whispered to
his wife:
“He’s the biggest liar on earth. But if only he’d hand over that
money.... I can’t stand the suspense. Put in a prayer meanwhile.”
The Evangelist puffed great clouds, and delivered another turn or so.
“I’ve something to tell you, my dear friend--in confidence, that is.
_The Star of Bethlehem’s been seen!_”
He bent over Egholm and stared full into his eyes.
“Yes, the Star of Bethlehem--right over Odense, it was.”
And he puffed a spurt of smoke into Egholm’s face, his own contracting
into an unconcealed grin.
“My father, the Angel, was standing in his office, and he saw it. It
isn’t everyone that can see it, you know. But I could. It was the
hugest star I’ve ever seen.”
Egholm condescended to shake his head as if deeply impressed. For the
rest, his every nerve-cell was concentrating in an effort to hypnotise
Karlsen’s hand into Karlsen’s pocket for that bundle of notes.
At eleven minutes past seven the Evangelist laid down his pipe and
buttoned his coat.
“The money! Er--you’ll excuse me, but--you’re not forgetting ... that
gift.... No hurry, of course, not in the least....”
“You shall have it. I’m not forgetting it, no,” said Karlsen, with
unction. “It’s not a great sum, but with the blessing of the Lord it
may go a long way.”
He drew out a leather purse with a string from his pocket, unfastened
the lace with exasperating care, and flung out a hand with a
two-_kroner_ piece.
“Two _kroner_! Is that--the gift? Karlsen, you don’t mean it!” said
Egholm, weeping.
“One _daler_, yes,” said Karlsen, laughing heartily. But his expression
changed suddenly, possibly influenced by Egholm’s threatening look,
and, resuming his dignified manner, he went on:
“The gift was originally forty-two _kroner_ altogether, that being the
sum found when the box was opened. Fru Westergaard gave thirty-five
herself. You were in her good books, my friend.”
Karlsen allowed himself a momentary lapse from dignity to the extent of
a single wink.
“The rocking-chair,” murmured Egholm reminiscently.
“But,” went on the Evangelist, “you owed arrears of tithe ever since
February of last year....”
His voice grew thick with imminent laughter.
“So we decided to annex the forty _kroner_ for tithes--and here’s the
rest!”
“Decided ... who decided? When the money was collected for me?
Impossible!”
“The congregation agreed to it,” said Karlsen unconcernedly. Then
suddenly he dug one thumb into his despairing brother’s ribs, uttered a
sound like the rasp of a saw, and whispered:
“And Fru Westergaard was there, too--my son!”
* * * * *
Limp and utterly dispirited, Egholm walked up with Karlsen to the
station. A strange feeling of detachment had come over him, and the
inclination to weep that he always felt after great excitement.
Karlsen walked a couple of paces ahead, talking gaily over his shoulder.
“What say?” queried Egholm against the wind. The handbag with edifying
works at six _kroner_ cloth boards weighed heavily in his numbed hand.
“I say, it’s a good thing we’re near the end of the month.”
“Yes,” agreed Egholm. “But what d’you mean?”
“Pay day, my dear man. And I can do with it!”
“But I thought--I thought the work was voluntary. It says in the Rules
of the Brotherhood....”
“Well, what d’you expect me to live on?”
“Why, gifts.”
“Huh! A long way that’d go. About as far as....”
“No, of course....” agreed Egholm meekly, shifting the bag to his other
hand.
“But they don’t pay me enough,” said the Evangelist harshly. “Not by
a long way. Everything’s getting dearer, and I’ve had a lot of extra
expenses into the bargain. I helped a poor girl that had got into
trouble. A Frøken Madsen. Bought her a cigar shop in Kerteminde; it
cost an awful sum. But she was a sort of relation--not of mine, you
understand. My wife’s people. But I count it all the same, of course.
No, they’ll have to give me a rise. And they will, too, I know. They
can’t do without me, and that’s the end of it.”
They reached the station, and Karlsen took his ticket.
“_Second_ class, I said,” he cried, and winked at Egholm.
“Came from Veile, and going back to Veile. Life’s one long journey.
Anyhow, it’s what we’re supposed to do: go out into the world and make
converts. Know a man named Justesen in Veile? Horse-dealer. No? Ah,
he’s a man if you like! Never troubles to ask the price when he finds a
pair to suit him. ‘Bring ’em along’--that’s all he says.”
“Horse-dealers don’t go in much for religion as a rule.”
“Not him--no. But his wife!” said Karlsen, rasping again like a saw.
“His wife.... Had a wire from Justesen last evening; he’s coming home
to-day and going off again by the night train to Hamburg. So off I go
to look up my old friend Egholm--what?”
“Yes....” said Egholm.
He stood in the waiting-room a little after the train had gone,
warming himself by the stove. Then he shook his head and staggered off
homewards.
Again and again he tried to reckon up how he stood.
“No hope of getting to work on the boat now,” he muttered. But, to his
surprise, he found his thoughts refused to dwell on this disaster,
which should by rights have overshadowed all else.
No; he could think of one thing--he was hungry.
For months past he had not had a decent meal, and, though he had
not realised it himself, his looking forward to that gift from the
Brotherhood had been associated with an indomitable desire for _food_.
Outside his own door he stopped. The scent of the clove tea came to
greet him, and revolted him for the first time. He turned round and
walked away again, out over the sandhills, along the quay, and down
between the warehouses.
The group of fishermen sighted his thin, fluttering figure in the
gloom, shook themselves, and pressed their backs closer against the
wall of the shed.
But Egholm found at last an old green rowing boat among those drawn up
on the beach. He struck a match, and made sure it was the one.
Then he clambered up on to it, and knelt down on the boards.
The wind tore his plaintive prayer to shreds, and strewed a shower of
broken, unmeaning sounds out over the harbour and the town.