A man said:

“You never go out shooting now? ?sop is running loose in the woods; he is after a hare.”

I said:

“Go and shoot it for me.”

Some days passed. Herr Mack looked me up. He was hollow-eyed; his face was grey. I thought: Is it true that I can see through my fellows, or is it not? I do not know, myself.

Herr Mack spoke of the landslip, the catastrophe. It was a misfortune, a sad accident; I was in no way to blame.

I said:

“If it was someone who wished to separate Eva and me at any price, he has gained his end. God’s curse be on him!”

Herr Mack looked at me suspiciously. He murmured something about the fine funeral. Nothing had been spared.

I sat admiring the alertness of his mind. He would have no compensation for the boat that my landslide had crushed.

“Oh, but surely,” I said, “will you not have some payment for the boat and the tar-bucket and the brush?”

“No, my dear Lieutenant,” he answered. “How could you think of such a thing?” And he looked at me with hatred in his eyes.

For three weeks I saw nothing of Edwarda. Yes, once I met her at the store: when I went to buy some brea............