"For Heaven's sake no!" objected Winning. "He ought not to show himself. He will hardly be in the mood to speak kindly to the people, and if he meets them with asperity, then the worst is to be feared."
"What are those men out there after, anyhow?" cried Dr. Hagenbach, who was likewise present, because he feared that his medical services might be needed. "Whom are they threatening? Herr Dernburg? Us? Or are they quarreling among themselves?"
"I presume they themselves know least of all," replied the upper-engineer. "You may depend, their leader Landsfeld is at the bottom of it. He is to be in Odensburg to-day, when we may certainly expect matters to take a grave aspect."
"So much the less can I assume any longer the responsibility all by myself," declared the director. "I shall tell our chief that we are no longer masters of the situation. He can then do what he chooses."
He started for the telephone, when all of a sudden the noise ceased. He hushed quite suddenly, only a few individual voices being heard; then these too were silent and a deathlike silence prevailed. The officers hurried to the window, in order to see what was going on.
"There is the master!" exclaimed Winning. "I thought that he would appear without summons, if he heard that tumult."
"But how he does look!" added Hagenbach, in a whisper. "I fear that nature will give way."
"Let us open the doors, so that he can retreat here in case of necessity," said the director, who had likewise come up. "He is quite alone, not even Wildenrod is with him. We must go to him! Quick, gentlemen!"
The doors were opened that had been locked from the inside, but the officers could neither reach their chief, nor he them--a dense mass of men stood between, and held the square before the house. The attempt of the director and his colleagues, to break through this living wall, was vain--the workmen standing nearest assumed so threatening an attitude, the gentlemen desisted, so as not to tempt to a deed of violence that would have immediately reacted against Dernburg.
He had made use of the little by-path that led from the Manor to the superintendent's building, without going near the works. Nobody had seen his approach, and now he suddenly stood among his workmen as if he had sprung from the ground. The whole force of his personal presence was shown at this moment--his bare appearance had the most subduing effect upon the just now fiercely excited multitude, who suddenly stood, as it were, spellbound. All eyes were directed toward that tall form, with darkly knitted eyebrows; all waited for the first word from his mouth. His glance slowly swept over the crowd that he had once swayed by a single nod, and who now withstood him thus. Still he spoke not, for it seemed as though utterance had failed him.