Part 21 (2/2)

”I thank you, Edwarda, for offering me shelter when my house was burned,” I said. ”It was the kinder of you, since your father was hardly willing.” And with bared head I thanked her for her offer.

”In G.o.d's name, will you not see me again, Glahn?” she said suddenly.

The Baron was calling.

”The Baron is calling,” I said, and took off my hat again respectfully.

And I went up into the hills, to my mining. Nothing, nothing should make me lose my self-possession any more. I met Eva. ”There, what did I say?” I cried. ”Herr Mack cannot drive me away. He has burned my hut, and I already have another hut...” She was carrying a tar-bucket and brush. ”What now, Eva?”

Herr Mack had a boat in a shed under the cliff, and had ordered her to tar it. He watched her every step--she had to obey.

”But why in the shed there? Why not at the quay?”

”Herr Mack ordered it so..

”Eva, Eva, my love, they make a slave of you and you do not complain.

See! now you are smiling again, and life streams through your smile, for all that you are a slave.”

When I got up to my mining work, I found a surprise. I could see that someone had been on the spot. I examined the tracks and recognised the print of Herr Mack's long, pointed shoes. What could he be ferreting about here for? I thought to myself, and looked round. No one to be seen--I had no suspicion.

And I fell to hammering with my drill, never dreaming what harm I did.

x.x.x

The mail-packet came; it brought my uniform; it was to take the Baron and all his cases of scales and seaweeds on board. Now it was loading up barrels of herrings and oil at the quay; towards evening it would be off again.

I took my gun and put a heavy load of powder in each barrel. When I had done that, I nodded to myself. I went up into the hills and filled my mine with powder as well; I nodded again. Now everything was ready. I lay down to wait.

I waited for hours. All the time I could hear the steamer's winches at work hoisting and lowering. It was already growing dusk. At last the whistle sounded: the cargo was on board, the s.h.i.+p was putting off. I still had some minutes to wait. The moon was not up, and I stared like a madman through the gloom of the evening.

When the first point of the bow thrust out past the islet, I lit my slow match and stepped hurriedly away. A minute pa.s.sed. Suddenly there was a roar--a spurt of stone fragments in the air--the hillside trembled, and the rock hurtled cras.h.i.+ng down the abyss. The hills all round gave echo.

I picked up my gun and fired off one barrel; the echo answered time and time again. After a moment I fired the second barrel too; the air trembled at the salute, and the echo flung the noise out into the wide world; it was as if all the hills had united in a shout for the vessel sailing away.

A little time pa.s.sed; the air grew still, the echoes died away in all the hills, and earth lay silent again. The s.h.i.+p disappeared in the gloom.

I was still trembling with a strange excitement. I took my drills and my gun under my arm and set off with slack knees down the hillside. I took the shortest way, marking the smoking track left by my avalanche.

aesop followed me, shaking his head all the time and sneezing at the smell of burning.

When I came down to the shed, I found a sight that filled me with violent emotion. A boat lay there, crushed by the falling rock. And Eva--Eva lay beside it, mangled and broken, dashed to pieces by the shock--torn beyond recognition. Eva--lying there, dead.

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