Chapter 95

_The same. Enter ANDREW._

ANDREW (_entering_).

Isn't it close in here! [_Takes off his muffler._] Good evening.

[_Wraps the muffler around the lock of the gun, and puts the gun next to him against the wall._]

I advise every one not to touch this; the gun is loaded.

[_To the host._]

I do not know what is the matter with me. All at once I began to feel so badly out there. I was going to wait for my brother at the boundary. HOST.

Make yourself at home, Mr. Andrew.

ANDREW.

I suppose William has not yet come.

[_Throws himself on a bench, puts his arms upon the table and rests his head upon them._]

FREI (_rattles his glass on the table_).

Let me have another one, host. And it is a favor that I now drink in your place, when you still charge for it. In a week from now you will have to provide the stuff, and no honest man need pay you a penny for it, I tell you.

LINDENSCHMIED (_from this point on incessantly casting furtive glances sometimes at_ ANDREW, _sometimes at the gun_).

If he would only go to sleep--that fellow!

[_Leaning across the table, secretly to_ FREI.]

There in the Dell, you say?--And are you quite sure, Frei, that nothing will be punished any longer?

FREI.

Superstition, I tell you! If you do something, and they hang you, you may call me a rascal for the rest of your life. Look here! What formerly was called fidelity and honesty, that's a tale with which old grannies used to humbug us. And a fellow that keeps his word is a scoundrel; such a one I would not trust as far as the door. The common people are essentially honest, because they are the common people. You ought to hear those gentlemen over there talk; there was a professor among them; he ought to know.

LINDENSCHMIED (_leads him aside_).

But what about conscience? And about the hereafter?

FREI.

All superstition! Nothing else, let me tell you.

LINDENSCHMIED.

That's what I always thought. But formerly a person was not allowed to say such things.

FREI.

They humbugged people with heaven and hell, so that our noble and gracious master might keep his hares all to himself. They have drummed a conscience into poor people in their childhood, so that they should submit patiently when the rich are living in luxury and extravagance.

LINDENSCHMIED.

And he is in the Dell?

[HOST _becomes attentive._]

FREI.

Who?

LINDENSCHMIED.

That--

[_Buttons his coat._]

FREI.

Where are you going?

LINDENSCHMIED.

To pay debts before another day comes.

[_While he watches_ ANDREW _furtively, he fumbles with his left hand in his vest-pocket, in order to pay the host_.]

Why, I can't get it out with--

FREI.

The fingers of your left hand are stiff.

LINDENSCHMIED (_with a pantomime_).

Those of my right will soon become crooked.

FREI.

Have you had a stroke?

LINDENSCHMIED (_laughing hoarsely_).

Yes, a leaden one. Two ounces of powder and three of buckshot.

[_Constantly speaks in a subdued voice, so as not to awaken_ ANDREW.] A memorandum from that fellow in the Dell.

FREI.

From Godfrey?

LINDENSCHMIED.

Because I coined money out of the deer belonging to the owner of Strahlau. There was enough uncoined money running about in the forest.

FREI.

Let me have another one, host.

[_Holds out his glass._]

LINDENSCHMIED (_lost in thought, alone in the foreground_).

Six times I ran out where he was to pass; but he did not come. At that time conscience was still the fashion. Then I thought: "It is not to be now," and postponed it to some time when he should come along by accident, so that I should be obliged to see that it was to be. For whole nights it choked me like a nightmare and wasted my body, that I should not lay hands on him, and now--ha! ha! ha!

[_Gives a short convulsive laugh, thus rousing himself out of his thoughts; looks around embarrassed._]

FREI.

Did you laugh, Lindenschmied?

LINDENSCHMIED.

I don't know whether it was me.

FREI.

You have a queer laugh. Are you going along, Lindenschmied, into the ducal territory?

LINDENSCHMIED (_slaps him on the shoulder_).

Man, now we have liberty! I have my own way.

FREI.

I don't care.

[_Steps to the background to the host_.]

What do I owe you on this last occasion that it is necessary to pay? There; give me change.

HOST.

You have had three, four--

[LINDENSCHMIED _has availed himself of the moment when no one is looking at him to take away_ ANDREW'S _gun furtively, and hurries out with it_.]

FREI.

What is the time, host?

HOST.

Past eight.

FREI (_going out_).

Good-by.