On the terrace outside stood Ulric Hartmann. Darkness had fallen now, and the expression of his features was no longer discernible as he gazed up at the windows of the house he had just left, but his voice was low and hoa.r.s.e with emotion as he repeated the threat he had before used with reference to Arthur Berkow,

"He or I, or, if it must be, both!"

CHAPTER XXV.

Next morning! The thought of it had filled not only Arthur and his wife, but every one connected with the Berkow establishment, with grave and anxious care. It had come now, that dreaded morning, and all the apprehensions which had been felt respecting it seemed likely to be realised.

At a very early hour the whole staff of officials was a.s.sembled at the great house. They had either come to hold counsel or had taken refuge there; it almost seemed the latter, for the men's faces were pale, haggard, excited, and there was a great buzz of talk going on among them, much anxious discussion pro and con, proposals rejected as soon as made, and many fears expressed as to coming events.

"I am still of opinion that it was a mistake to arrest those men,"

Schaffer declared, speaking to the Director. "It might have been risked if the soldiers had been on the spot, but it should never have been attempted by us, while we are unsupported. They will storm the house to set the prisoners free, and we shall be obliged to give them up."

"Excuse me, we shall do nothing of the kind," cried the chief-engineer, in complete opposition to his two colleagues as usual. "We shall let them storm, and we shall hold out and defend ourselves here in the house if necessary. Herr Berkow is determined to do it."

"Well, you ought to know best what he has decided on doing; you are his only adviser," said the Director, rather piqued. He could boast of no such intimacy with the proprietor, although his position would rather have ent.i.tled him to it.

"Herr Berkow is in the habit of deciding for himself," replied the chief-engineer, drily. "Only it happens this time as usual that I fully agree with him. It would be contrary to all right and justice, it would be nothing better than mere paltry cowardice, to let these miscreants go. Why! they had avowed an intention of destroying the engines for us."

"By Hartmann's order," interposed Schaffer.

"It does not signify who gave the order. Their master arrived just in time to hinder them from performing their rascally trick, and I should like to see the man who would calmly have let the offenders go. He had them arrested, and he was right. Hartmann was not by, he was still down at the shafts in the thick of the row, but he could not prevent the others going below after all; his own father went and stood up against him."

"Yes, it was a good thing the Manager came to our aid," said the Director. "He must have seen there was no other way of averting the worst, for he came to us of his own free will this morning and offered to take the lead of the men going on shift, though it is no part of his business. He knew his son would not venture to attack him, and not one of the others lifted a hand against their mates when they saw their leader held back. If the descent was made, we have only the old man to thank for it."

"I tell you this," maintained Schaffer, "the descent had been accomplished, more than half the miners had stood by neutral, and if they had not been exasperated by the arrest of their comrades, the whole business might have been settled peaceably and quietly."

"Peaceably and quietly, while Hartmann is in command?" the chief-engineer laughed outright. "There you are quite mistaken. He was looking for a pretext, no matter what, to attack us, and, if he had found none, he would have attacked us all the same without. This morning's work must have shown him that his power is rapidly drawing to an end, that perhaps after to-day he may not be able to count on his partisans, so he will risk his last throw. The fellow knows he is lost, and he will drag down with him recklessly all who obey him still through habit or through fear. He will stand at nothing now, and least of all at injuring us."

Here they were interrupted by Herr Wilberg, who left the window where he had been posted for the last ten minutes and came back to them with a very white face.

"The noise gets worse and worse," said he timorously; "there can be no doubt that they mean to besiege the house, if Herr Berkow does not give way. The park-gates are down already, all the beds are trampled up. Oh!

and all those lovely roses blooming on the terrace"----

"Don't come bothering us with your sentimental nonsense," cried the chief-engineer, as the Director and Schaffer hurried to the window.

"Now when the rebels are storming the house about our heads, you are thinking of your trampled-down rose-trees. Why don't you go and sit down and put your lamentation over them into verse? I should think it would be just the theme to inspire a poet."

"I have been so unfortunate for some time as to excite your displeasure by everything I say or do, sir," returned Herr Wilberg, offended, but not without a sort of secret self-satisfaction which seemed to increase the other's ill-humour.

"Because you never say or do anything sensible," he growled, turning his back on the young man and going up to his colleagues, who were still looking out at the ever-growing tumult.

"We shall have it in earnest now," said the Director uneasily. "They are threatening to force an entrance. Herr Berkow ought to be told."

"Let him have a minute's peace," interposed the chief-engineer. "He has been at his post ever since daybreak. I think you might let him have five minutes with his wife now. All the necessary measures are taken, and when danger is really at hand, he will not be wanting, as you well know."

He was right. Ever since the dawn Arthur had been actively occupied, giving orders and instructions, and personally superintending all that was being done. He had hardly seen Eugenie until now, when he had gone with her for a few minutes into one of the adjoining rooms.

During this short interview he must have made her fully acquainted with the situation, for her arms were clasped round his neck, and she was clinging to him in the greatest agitation.

"You must not go out, Arthur. It would be a mad, a desperate venture.

What can you do, one against so many? Yesterday, when you interfered, they were fighting among themselves, but to-day they will all turn against you. You will pay the penalty for your rashness. I will not let you go."

Arthur freed himself gently but firmly from her embrace.

"I must, Eugenie! It is the only possible way to avert the attack, and it is not the first time I have had to face such scenes. Why, what did you yourself do yesterday when you arrived?"

"I was coming to you," said she, in a tone which implied that any venture would so have been justified. "But you want to tear yourself from me and wildly expose yourself to the blind fury of this Hartmann.

Think of what happened yesterday evening, think of his threats. If you must go, if there is no choice left, let me go with you at least. I am not afraid, I only tremble when I know you are in danger and alone."

He bent down to her gravely but lovingly.

"I know that you are brave, my Eugenie, but I should be a coward myself before those crowds, if I knew that a stone from their midst might strike you too. I want all my courage to-day, and I should not have it if I saw you in peril and felt I could not protect you. I know why you wish to go with me. You think I shall be safe from that one arm while you are at my side. Do not deceive yourself, that is all over and past since yesterday evening. You share the hatred now with which he has persecuted me, and if it were not so"--here his voice lost its soft inflection and his brow grew dark--"I would not owe my safety to a feeling which is alike an offence to you and to me, and which would in itself be sufficient to call for the man's dismissal, if his conduct in other respects did not make it necessary."

She must have felt the justice of his words, for she drooped her head in silent resignation.

Arthur started.

"The clamour is breaking out again, I must go. We shall only see each other for a few brief minutes at a time to-day, and even they will be anxious minutes for you, my poor wife. You could hardly have come back at a worse time."

"Would you rather have held out against them without me?" she asked in a low voice.

His face brightened, and there came into it an expression of pa.s.sionate tenderness.

"Without you? I have gone on so far like the soldier of a forlorn hope.

I only found out yesterday how one can fight with a will when the prosperity of a lifetime and all one's future are dependent on the result. You brought back to me the desire for both, and now they may a.s.sail us on all sides as they like. I believe in success now that I have you at my side once more!"

The officials hushed their noisy debatings as Berkow and his wife entered, and the impression produced on all hands by their appearance was due to something more than mere respect for the master. All eyes were at once fixed upon him, as though they could read in his face what was to be hoped or feared; they all pressed round him, as round a centre where support was to be found, and every one breathed more freely when he came in, as if the danger were half conjured already.

This movement, involuntary as it was, showed Eugenie sufficiently the position her husband had conquered for himself, and the way in which he stepped in among them proved too that he well knew how to maintain it.

His face, which she had seen but a few seconds before heavily clouded over by care, bore, now that it had to meet all those anxious enquiring looks, no other expression than that of a calm gravity, and there was an a.s.surance in his bearing which would have instilled confidence into the faintest heart.

"Well, gentlemen, things look rather hostile and threatening outside.

We must hold ourselves prepared for a sort of siege, perhaps even for an attack; does it not appear so to you?"

"They want to have the prisoners set free," said the Director, with a glance at Schaffer, inviting his support.

"Yes," said the latter, coming forwards, "and I fear we shall not be able to hold our own against all this uproar. The arrest of the three miners is their sole motive or pretext at present; if that were taken from them"...

"They would find another," interrupted Arthur, "and the weakness we should have betrayed would remove from them the last restraint. We must show neither hesitation nor fear now, or we shall lose the game at the last moment. I foresaw what would happen when I had those mischievous fellows arrested, but in the face of such a criminal attempt as that there was no choice but to proceed with the utmost severity. The prisoners will remain in custody until the troops arrive."

The Director beat a retreat, and Schaffer shrugged his shoulders. They had learnt to know that this tone of his would brook no contradiction.

"I do not see Hartmann in the crowd," continued Arthur, turning to the chief-engineer; "he is generally first wherever there are noise and tumult. To-day he seems only to have urged the others on, and then to have left them. He is nowhere visible."

"I have missed him for the last quarter of an hour," answered the other gravely. "I hope he is not up to fresh mischief elsewhere. You ordered back the men posted about the engine-houses, Herr Berkow?"

"Certainly. The few men we can dispose of are even more necessary here in the house, and, since the descent has been effected, the shafts and engines must be perfectly safe. They could not meddle with them without endangering their comrades down below."