"If my father does not get hurt, nor—nor one or two friends—"
"Martin Teimer, I suppose."
"What care I for Martin Teimer?"
"Franz Raffel, then!"
"Rudolf, how can you be so stupid?"
"Speckbacher—"
"Certainly, for one. We all love dear Speckbacher."
"Theresa! What wild tales they tell of him! They say that, being early left his own master, it soon ceased to be sufficient excitement to him to follow the roe or wage war with the lammergeyer from morning to-night, in the most savage, inaccessible places, so that he at length left his home altogether, and joined a set of lawless companions who dwelt among the caverns; supporting himself with his rifle when it was successful, but at other times joining predatory parties into the Bavarian dominions."
"Something I have heard of this," said Theresa, in a low voice; "but Maria Schmeider reclaimed him—"
"No, he was checked by the sudden and terrible end of one of his companions—"