Her start, her change of colour, and her whispered words attracted Bertha's attention again, and Wangen, no less amazed, bent over the prostrate figure and eagerly examined the lifeless features. "You know him?" he asked, hurriedly. "Yes, yes; I too have seen that face before, but where? Now I remember--at Castle Osternau. Surely it is the Candidate who disappeared so suddenly, the tutor with the odd name,--yes, I remember it now,--Pigglewitch."
The name, even at this moment, called forth a smile from some of the servants, but Wangen exclaimed, eagerly, "There! his lips moved, he will recover! Help me, Hans, instantly to take him up gently and carry him to the blue room, it is ready for guests. Be careful! he is coming to himself."
And, all alert in the hope of the stranger's recovery, Wangen himself supported the head and shoulders of the wounded man, and, with the help of the groom, carried him slowly up the steep staircase to the designated guest-chamber and laid him upon the huge old-fashioned bed. Elise walked beside the bearers, lending what aid she could, and never heeding that the blood, which was beginning to flow freely from the wound in the unfortunate man's forehead, was staining her hands and her dress.
"We must have medical aid immediately," Wangen said, when his burden had been safely deposited in the blue room; "every minute is precious."
He was interrupted by a vivid flash of lightning and a terrific clap of thunder, the echo of which was drowned in the dashing of the rain against the rattling window-panes.
"No servant will venture to drive to Ostrowko in such a night as this," Inspector Berndal declared; "we shall have to wait until the storm abates. It would be impossible to brave its fury."
Elise had occupied herself in arranging the pillows about the wounded man's head, after sending a maid for water to wash the wound, but as the words of the inspector fell upon her ear she turned to him, and said, quietly, "I know the road to Ostrowko perfectly well. I will drive over there and bring the doctor if you will have a vehicle made ready for me."
"What! you drive to Ostrowko in this storm, Fräulein Lieschen? Impossible!"
"You forget that I am a country girl, and accustomed from my earliest childhood to drive alone over the roughest possible roads. My sight is keen, my hand is sure. I know the road, and am not afraid either of the darkness or of the storm. Delay may imperil a human life; you have just said that every minute is precious, Herr von Wangen. You must not prevent my going to Ostrowko."
The inspector looked admiringly at the girl, who announced her daring resolve as quietly as if it were the easiest and most natural of undertakings.