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Arms and the Woman

Page 136

To find conveyance to the inn was not an easy task. No one wanted to

take the drive. Finally I secured a horse. There was no haggling over

the price. And soon I was loping through the snowdrifts in the

direction of the old inn. The snow whirled and eddied over the stubble

fields; the winds sang past my ears; the trees creaked and the river

flowed on, black and sluggish. It was a dreary scene. It was bitter

cold, but I had no mind for that. On, on I went. Two miles were left

in the rear. The horse was beginning to breathe hard. Sometimes the

snow was up to his knees. What if the old man was not there? The

blood sank upon my heart. Once the horse struck a slippery place and

nearly fell, but I caught him in time. I could now see the inn,

perhaps a mile away, through the leafless trees. It looked dismal

enough. The vines hung dead about it, the hedges were wild and

scrawny, the roses I knew to be no more, and the squirrel had left his

summer home for a warmer nest in the forest. A wave of joy swept over

me as I saw a thin stream of smoke winding above the chimney. Some one

was there. On, on; presently I flew up the roadway. A man stood on

the porch. It was Stahlberg. When I pushed down my collar his jaw

dropped. I flung the reins to him.

"Where is the innkeeper?" I cried with my first breath.

"In the hall, Herr. But--"

I was past him and going through the rooms. Yes, thank God, there he

was, sitting before the huge fireplace, where the logs crackled and

seethed, his grizzled head sunk between his shoulders, lost in some

dream. I tramped in noisily. He started out of his dream and looked

around.

"Gott!" he cried. He wiped his eyes and looked again. "Is it a dream

or is it you?"

"Flesh and blood!" I cried. "Flesh and blood!"

I closed the door and bolted it. He followed my movements with a

mixture of astonishment and curiosity in his eyes.

"Now," I began, "what have you done with the proofs which you took from

your wife--the proofs of the existence of a twin sister of the Princess

Hildegarde of Hohenphalia?"

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