"He is always endeavouring to use something new-fangled and peculiar," Herr Gunther, one of the richest of the land-owners in the county, declared. "These machines are probably useful enough in Germany, in countries where labour is perhaps very expensive, but they do not suit us here, where they are a ruinous innovation. We have so many poor people about us who want work, that it is a positive crime to deprive them of it by the use of machinery."
"That is just why Schorn buys the machines," another interposed, a man by the name of Mosic. "He hates our poor Slavonic labourers and would like to be independent of them. He has probably heard that many of our best labourers have combined against him and will not work for the German. Where does he get the money he is spending upon such expensive machines?"
"The harvests for several years have not been so plentiful as to enable a farmer to accumulate much cash," said another.
"Perhaps he buys on credit," said the notary, Dietrich.
"Not at all," rejoined the merchant, Meyer. "I have often offered him credit, but he has never accepted it. 'What I cannot buy with ready money I will go without; I will not burden myself with debt,' has always been his reply to me."
"He does not need to do so; he is always economical, and has money enough," remarked the shopkeeper, Weber. "As he was paying me yesterday for his clover seed, I saw that his pocket-book contained a roll of hundred-gulden notes."
"He has certainly spent a deal of money lately; he has purchased two splendid horses, and they were really not necessary, for the two which he gave in part payment to Schmelzigsohn were good enough. He is squandering money at present. People whisper queer things of him. In fact, they are beginning to whisper no longer, but to talk loudly, and before long what they say will be proclaimed in the market place."
"It certainly is strange that Schorn has so much money at his command. Before old Pollenz was murdered he seemed to have very little."
For an instant profound silence followed the last remark of Mosic's. A strange expression spread over the countenances of those present. The innuendo in the words just spoken made a most painful impression upon all. The Clerk was the first to recover himself. With an angry look at Mosic, he said in a tone of harsh reproof:
"How dare you, Herr Mosic, utter such an accusation against an absent member of our circle? I shall inform Herr Schorn of what you have said that he may call you to account for it."