Part 11 (2/2)

It was not yet seven, and the sun had still an hour's course to run. I re-entered the town, strolled back through the street, and presently came again to the Friedrich's Thor and the path leading to the church.

An irresistible impulse seemed to drag me back to the place.

Shudderingly, and with a sort of dread that was half longing, I pushed open the churchyard gate and went in. The doors were closed; a goat was browsing among the graves; and the rus.h.i.+ng of the Rhine, some three hundred yards away, was distinctly audible in the silence. I looked round for the priest's house--the scene of the first murder; but from this side, at all events, no house was visible. Going round, however, to the back of the church, I saw a gate, a box-bordered path, and, peeping through some trees, a chimney and the roof of a little brown-tiled house.

This, then, was the path along which Caspar Rufenacht, with the priest's blood upon his hands and the priest's gown upon his shoulders, had taken his guilty way to the confessional! How quiet it all looked in the golden evening light! How like the church-path of an English parsonage!

I wished I could have seen something more of the house than that bit of roof and that one chimney. There must, I told myself, be some other entrance--some way round by the road! Musing and lingering thus, I was startled by a quiet voice close against my shoulder, saying:--

”A pleasant evening, mein Herr!”

I turned, and found the priest at my elbow. He had come noiselessly across the gra.s.s, and was standing between me and the sunset, like a shadow.

”I--I beg your pardon,” I stammered, moving away from the gate. ”I was looking--”

I stopped in some surprise, and indeed with some sense of relief, for it was not the same priest that I had seen in the morning. No two, indeed, could well be more unlike, for this man was small, white-haired, gentle-looking, with a soft, sad smile inexpressibly sweet and winning.

”You were looking at my arbutus?” he said.

I had scarcely observed the arbutus till now, but I bowed and said something to the effect that it was an unusually fine tree.

”Yes,” he replied; ”but I have a rhododendron round at the front that is still finer. Will you come in and see it?”

I said I should be pleased to do so. He led the way, and I followed.

”I hope you like this part of our Rhine-country?” he said, as we took the path through the shrubbery.

”I like it so well,” I replied, ”that if I were to live anywhere on the banks of the Rhine, I should certainly choose some spot on the Upper Rhine between Schaffhausen and Basle.”

”And you would be right,” he said. ”Nowhere is the river so beautiful.

Nearer the glaciers it is milky and turbid--beyond Basle it soon becomes muddy. Here we have it blue as the sky--sparkling as champagne. Here is my rhododendron. It stands twelve feet high, and measures as many in diameter. I had more than two hundred blooms upon it last Spring.”

When I had duly admired this giant shrub, he took me to a little arbour on a bit of steep green bank overlooking the river, where he invited me to sit down and rest. From hence I could see the porch and part of the front of his little house; but it was all so closely planted round with trees and shrubs that no clear view of it seemed obtainable in any direction. Here we sat for some time chatting about the weather, the approaching vintage, and so forth, and watching the sunset. Then I rose to take my leave.

”I heard of you this evening at the Krone, mein Herr,” he said. ”You were out, or I should have called upon you. I am glad that chance has made us acquainted. Do you remain over to-morrow?”

”No; I must go on to-morrow to Basle,” I answered. And then, hesitating a little, I added:--”you heard of me, also, I fear, in the church.”

”In the church?” he repeated.

”Seeing the door open, I went in--from curiosity--as a traveller; just to look round for a moment and rest.”

”Naturally.”

”I--I had no idea, however, that I was not alone there. I would not for the world have intruded--”

”I do not understand,” he said, seeing me hesitate. ”The church stands open all day long. It is free to every one.”

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