Part 28 (1/2)
”Oh! nothing, except that Brandow has been telling everywhere that one of the horses which broke away from the carriage and tried to make its escape across the mora.s.s was drowned in the attempt.”
”Then that is surely the best proof of the impossibility.”
”Certainly,” replied Wollnow; ”and now you must have perfect quiet, or Lauterbach will be very angry. I will come back again in two hours; until then you must sleep undisturbed.”
Wollnow spent the two hours in a restless, impatient mood, of which the calm, self-possessed man would not have believed himself capable. He was expecting the young lawyer, who had promised to stop in Prora on his return from Dollan and tell him the result of his investigations.
Herr von Pahlen had left B. two hours before him, and might surely have executed his commission by this time. The expected visitor arrived at last, but without the gendarme Herr von Zadenig had ordered to attend him to give a suitable coloring to the affair.
”This is a very strange business,” said Herr von Pahlen. ”You know I went ostensibly to take the deposition of the man who drove the gentlemen, Hinrich Scheel; at least he was the princ.i.p.al person, and now would you believe it--”
”The man had disappeared,” said Wollnow.
”How did you know?”
”I only thought so; but go on.”
”Had actually disappeared,” continued Herr von Pahlen, ”although half an hour before our arrival he had been seen by the laborers on the estate, and also by Herr Brandow, who had just returned home. He had disappeared and could not be found, although Herr Brandow was kind enough to send men in every direction, who as Herr Brandow himself said, must have found him if--”
”The man had wanted to be found.”
”Exactly, but how stupid in the fellow, who, after all, is not to blame, except for having taken for the journey the two worst beasts among the many good ones, in order to spare the carriage-horses. It is from this cause Brandow says, as he now looks at the matter, that the whole misfortune arose. To be sure, if the fellow has really fled--I have left Ruterbusch there for the present, who will arrest him if he makes his appearance--the case a.s.sumes a very different aspect. The fellow will suggest the inference that he either found the money, G.o.d knows how, or took it out of the a.s.sessor's pocket while he was senseless, and now, being conscious of his guilt, fled when he saw us coming--and one can see a long distance over the moor. Brandow, who was very much astonished, said that he should have attributed such a crime to any one rather than this man, who had always been highly esteemed by his father, and since his death had served him faithfully and honestly, but admitted that the sudden disappearance was very mysterious; and after all everything was possible; at any rate, the possibility could not now be denied that the poor devil might have yielded to the great temptation of becoming a rich man at one stroke.”
”A devil always feels tempted to do evil, even if he is not poor,” said Wollnow.
”So you think he has stolen it,” asked the lawyer eagerly.
”I have nothing to do with the matter,” replied Wollnow evasively, while his dark eyes flashed with an expression that seemed to say that for all that he did have an opinion in regard to the affair, and a very decided one.
CHAPTER XXIV.
Gotthold had left Prora for Sundin as soon as his health permitted, although Ottilie declared that the Prora air was infinitely better for a convalescent, and he could complete the promised picture just as well here as there. Nay, she had even announced herself ready to give up the present entirely, if their friend could not be induced to stay on any other terms; but her husband had again differed from her in opinion.
”We ought not to try to detain one who wants to go,” said he, ”or we must be responsible for all the results that may proceed from his stay, and that I have no inclination to do in this case. I am sincerely attached to the young man, as he deserves, and wish him from my heart all the happiness he deserves; but I don't exactly see how he could obtain it upon this path. And in this I have not clung to the views you know I hold regarding marriage. I would be reconciled to all possible concessions, if Gotthold could be helped. But that cannot be done yet.
The only way to remove the obstacles from his path is such a terrible one, that, from my knowledge of his nature, he will shudder to use it if matters ever go far enough. At present they have not reached that point.”
”I shall take care not to rack my brains over this mystery,” cried Ottilie; ”only let me ask one question, to which I beg you to give me a plain, straightforward answer: Does Gotthold know of this expedient?”
”I have not mentioned it to him, but it is possible that, with his penetration, he has. .h.i.t upon it himself.”
However little satisfaction Ottilie had derived from this very vague information, she had not been able to doubt that Gotthold really wished to go away, and even her husband's persuasion would hardly have detained him.
Gotthold had hurried off with the impetuosity of one who fancies some magic spell has been cast over him, and strives to break it, cost what it may. And had not an enchanted ring been woven around him from the moment he had entered his native island, and been driven by the companion of his boyhood, without recognizing him, through his native fields? Good Jochen Prebrow! He certainly bore very little resemblance to a Mercury, and yet with him had commenced the succession of marvels which had taken place during the last few days, which had now shown him a heavenly face and now a fiendish grin; now refreshed him with nectar and ambrosia, and anon strewn ashes on his tongue.
”I should be the most miserable creature on earth if you did not understand me!”
The words constantly rang in his ears--the words and the anxious tone in which she had uttered them, as if from the depths of the wretchedness into which she would sink without hope of deliverance, if he did not understand her. She and he! Was not doubt misunderstanding, and were not doubt and despair one and the same thing in this case?
Had he understood her?