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Page 102
"I am, then, a rich man; no more crusades, no more stale bread and
cheap tobacco, no more turning my cuffs and collars and clipping the
frayed edges of my trousers. I am fortunate. There is a joke, too.
Picard and his friends advanced me five thousand francs for the
enterprise."
"I marvel where they got it!"
"I am sorry that I was rough with you."
"I bear you not the slightest ill-will. I never have. Herman St�ler;
I must remember to have them make out the drafts in that name."
Breitmann appeared to be sleeping again. After waiting a moment or
two, his guardian-angel tiptoed out.
An hour went by.
"Hildegarde, have you any money?"
"Enough for my needs."
"Will you take half of it?"
"Karl!"
"Will you?"
"No!"
He accepted this as final. And immediately his gaze became fixed on
the bay. A sleek white ship was putting out to sea.
"They are leaving, Karl," she said, and the courage in her eyes beat
down the pain in her heart.
"In my coat, inside; bring them to me." As he could move only his
right arm and that but painfully, he bade her open each paper and hold
it so that he could read plainly. The scrawl of the Great Captain; a
deed and title; some dust dropping from the worn folds: how he strained
his eyes upon them. He could not help the swift intake of air, and the
stab which pierced his shoulder made him faint. She began to refold
them. "No," he whispered. "Tear them up, tear them up!"
"Why, Karl."
"Tear them up, now, at once. I shall never look at them again. Do it.
What does it matter? I am only Herman St�ler. Now!"
With shaking fingers she tipped the tattered sheets, and the tears ran
over and down her cheeks. It would not have hurt her more had she torn
the man's heart in twain. He watched her with fevered eyes till the
last scrap floated into her lap.
"Now, toss them into the grate and light a match."
And when he saw the reflected glare on the opposite wall, he sank
deeper into the pillow. The woman was openly sobbing. She came back
to his side, knelt, and laid her lips upon his hand. There was now
only a dim white speck on the horizon, and with that strange sea-magic
the hull suddenly dipped down, and naught but a trail of smoke
remained. Then this too vanished. Breitmann withdrew his hand, but he
laid it upon her head.
"I am a broken man, Hildegarde; and in my madness I have been something
of a rascal. But for all that, I had big dreams, but thus they go, the
one in flames and the other out to sea." He stroked her hair. "Will
you take what is left? Will you share with me the outlaw, be the wife
of a disappointed outcast? Will you?"
"Would I not follow you to any land? Would I not share with you any
miseries? Have you ever doubted the strength of my love?"
"Knowing that there was another?"
"Knowing even that."
"It is I who am little and you who are great. Hildegarde, we'll have
our friend Ferraud seek a priest this afternoon and square accounts."
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