The river flowed on its way in the last rays of the setting sun. Its
smooth surface was still steeped in purple, and a wide-meshed network
of silver ribbons, at one place melting into each other, at another
clearly defined and intermingled with fantastic shapes, reeds, flowers,
and sedges, spread itself over the darkly glowing water. But the
willows, which kept watch like sentinels on the bank in vague shadowy
rows, were already casting broad bands of darkness across the edge of
the shining mirror, and these were slowly encroaching on its centre.
The distance lay veiled in a blue haze. Here and there a damp mist
mounted from the meadows and clung in silvery wisps about the tops of
solitary clumps of poplars which rose above the level, wide-spreading
fields, and stood outlined sharply against the rosy glow of the evening
sky. Silence reigned far and wide. From time to time a dog in some
invisible farmyard bayed sleepily. A broody reed-sparrow now and then
gave an anxious twitter, as if in fear of an enemy, and high aloft the
subdued cry of a kingfisher, returning late from the chase to its nest,
sounded through the air.
There was life on the water. A raft on its way into the valley revolved
lazily in the circle of light, which grew gradually smaller, and being
now cut in two, threatened to vanish soon altogether in darkness. Like
a great snake with fiery jaws it drifted there. The flames beneath the
supper-cauldron blazed, and blue-grey vapour ascended to paint a long
strip of cloud on the evening sky, where here and there a star shyly
opened its eye.
A vehicle came rattling along the high-road which led from Muensterberg
to the ferry in the village of Wengern, and drew up at the ferry
station, which was deserted and dark, ferry-boat and man having retired
to rest on the other side. The powerful outline of Leo's athletic
figure filled the back seat. He was leaning back indolently, whistling
snatches of a nameless song and sending forth clouds of smoke from a
short clay pipe. Pulling himself erect, he cried out in a voice of
thunder to the opposite bank, "Ferryman, a-hoy!"
Some time elapsed before he was answered by a sign of life. The light
of a lantern moving hither and thither at last settled its course, and
from the end of the raft cast a long gold line across the stream.
The driver, who was a young strapping peasant lad, belonging to the
stables of the Prussian Crown, turned round on the box, and begging the
"gnaediger Herr's" pardon, suggested that it was not the proper big
ferry-boat but only a skiff which was coming across.
Leo gave vent to his ire in a salvo of Spanish oaths, and the driver
thought the best thing to do would be to send the ferryman back.
"So that I may kick my heels here for another half-hour," Leo said.
"No, my lad, I would rather use my own strong legs, and enter my
ancestral home on foot. Have _you_ a home, my lad?"
"Why, of course, sir," the driver replied. "My father sent me out to
service that I might learn something of the ways of the world."
Leo chuckled, and went on smoking in silence. Every word of the
broad, homely dialect that fell on his ear, every fair sunburnt
honest countenance that met his eye, renewed his affection for his
half-forgotten birthplace.
"And I, fool, didn't want to come back," he murmured to himself.
The boat landed.
The ferryman was still old Juergens, with the plaid woollen comforter
round his neck and the same great patches of sailcloth on the knees of
his trousers. He began to grumble and scold.
"Why hadn't they shouted across 'Horse and carriage.' Did not every
baby in arms know by this time that was the right way of summoning the
big ferry barge instead of the small boat."
"You are quite right, Juergens," said Leo, tapping him majestically on
the shoulder; "it is a grave scandal that your system of governing the
stream is not more respected."
At the first sound of his voice the old man shook with fright. Then he
snatched off his cap and stammered in confusion, "The master! the
master!"
The post of ferryman at Wengern was in the gift of Halewitz, and it had
been given twenty years ago to old Juergens (for even then he had been
old), in reward for his long and faithful services to the family. It
was no sinecure; but where does such a thing as a sinecure exist in the
country of Prussia?
The aged retainer struggled to keep back his tears; he seized the
leonine paw that rested on his shoulder, and seemed as if he would
never stop stroking it with his horny gnarled hands.
Leo, who was every moment feeling more at home in his patriarchal
inheritance, ordered his luggage to be left in the little ferry-house,
and, lavishly overpaying the young driver, dismissed him.
The boat put off and glided with a slight grinding on the pebbles of
the shallow water into mid-stream. Leo, content, absently let his hand
dip into the water, and delighted in the little sparkling rivulets that
ran up his arm. Meanwhile the old man gazed at him from the end of the
boat with big tear-dimmed eyes.
"It would be best," he said at last, "to row the 'gnaediger Herr' as far
as the Isle of Friendship, which is halfway there."
Leo nodded. The Isle of Friendship! So well known was the tie which
bound him and Ulrich together that their friendship had become a
romance current amongst the people, so that even the name they had
given in joke to the place where as boys they had loved best to meet,
which they had never mentioned except to a few near relations, had
grown into a geographical landmark for the public. Ah, but if they
knew! If they could see the ghost which had arisen between them!
"Repent nothing," a voice cried out within him; and he struck the water
with his clenched fist, till a fountain of glistening drops started up
around him.
Old Juergens nearly dropped his oars, in alarm, and stuttered out a
query.
Leo laughed at him. "I didn't mean anything, old man," he said. "I was
simply quarrelling with brother within."
"No good to be got out of him--maybe he's a devil," said the old
ferryman, philosophically, and rowed on.
The boat had turned its keel down the river, which shimmered faintly as
it wound along between the dusky blackness of the willow-bushes, now
widening almost into a lake, then narrowing where a headland, like an
outstretched knee, jutted darkly into the ripples.
The deep ruddy glow on the horizon now covered a smaller space. A
phosphorescent green, slashed with small silver-fringed clouds, slowly
struggled higher and higher till it was lost in the dark blue of night.
The twilight of midnight, the dreamy magic of which is only known to
men who have their homes in northern climes, was descending on the
earth.
Just in front of the boat floated the raft, a huge mass reflected in
the shining water, with the smoke from smouldering brushwood curling
softly upwards and hovering in the air above it. In a few minutes they
overtook it. Figures crouching on the rafters raised their heads in
languid curiosity and stared at the boat as it passed. Red flames
flickered still under the cauldron, and from within the straw-roofed
cabin, rough as any rubbish-heap in the fields, came the sound of a
woman's voice singing a plaintive ditty.
In about half an hour the black shadowy outline of an island reared
itself from the middle of the gleaming mirror of water. It resembled a
massive flower-basket, for from the stony edge of its banks the ragged
branches of the alders drooped far over into the stream.
This was it. At the sight of it a host of pictures and memories
surged up from his heart's secret depths, where they had till now
lain dormant, sent to sleep over and over again by the one grim,
overshadowing thought that had brooded on his mind like a vulture, the
deadening flap of whose wings had drowned for years all home voices and
sentiment within him.
Leo started up, and sought with eager eyes to penetrate the thick
boscage. But he could not descry a gleam of the white temple. It lay
buried in the dusk of the trees. But there on the right bank were to be
seen buildings black and ragged in outline; that was Uhlenfelde, the
ancient, noble house where lanky Uli ruled as lord and master.
And beside him, as mistress---- "Be calm, don't think about it," he cried
inwardly.
The boat took a sharp curve towards the left bank, where, amidst tall
reeds, shone forth the white sand of a landing-place.
A few minutes later Leo was striding alone over the dewy meadows, from
which there rose a sweet scent so thick and heavy one could almost
grasp it with the hand. At his feet, to right and left, a thousand
grasshoppers kept up a lively chorus. The little creatures, startled by
his footsteps, hopped on like heralds before him, and in the branches
of the elms which studded the meadow path he fancied that he heard from
time to time a rustling whisper of welcome. A wilderness of blossom
rioted in the uncut hedges. The honeysuckle bells swept his hands, and
a thick rank growth of bindweed and runnet twined about his feet. A
fine moisture sprinkled his brow refreshingly. He stood still and
looked round him. All was his property as far as his eye could reach in
the summer twilight. He was overcome by a sense of shame. This soft,
warm nest, designed by a kind Providence, as it seemed, for his
especial comfort, had he not, more thoughtlessly, it is true, than
heartlessly, been ready to sacrifice it to the first stranger who came
along?
A lofty consciousness of inherited possessions, the beauty of the
summer night, and the nearness of home, combined to inspire and soften
him. He pulled off his cap, folded his hands over the warm bowl of his
pipe and prayed, with tears pouring down his cheeks. It was a man, ripe
and strong, moderately gifted, but full of common sense, knowing well
what he had learnt from life, what he might do and might not, who came
thus boldly into the presence of his Maker and spoke frankly to Him.
When he had done, he puffed vigorously at his cooling pipe, and in a
serene mood walked towards the ancestral seat of the Sellenthins, which
greeted him out of the shadows.