The pounding was repeated from above. "Bum, bum!" imitated the child, while Petrovitsch complained that he felt every blow of the hammer in his brain.
Lenz could not have touched the right spring in one of the clocks, for it suddenly began to play the air of the grand Hallelujah. "Hallelujah, blessed be God the Lord!" sang Lenz with the full force of his voice. Annele sang too, keeping one hand upon Lenz's shoulder, and the other upon the head of the child. "Hallelujah! Hallelujah!" cried a voice from above.
Once more that piercing cry of old rang through the house "My Pilgrim! my faithful brother!"
The chamber-door was battered down with an axe.
"Are you all alive?" cried Pilgrim,
"All; thank God!"
Pilgrim embraced Petrovitsch first, taking him for Lenz, and the old man returned the greeting with a kiss on both cheeks, after the Russian fashion.
Close upon Pilgrim came the engineer, followed by Faller, Don Bastian, and the members of the Liederkranz.
"Is my William safe?" asked Lenz.
"Yes indeed, safe in my house," answered Don Bastian.