Unfortunately it happened that Landsfeld, with Fallner, was in immediate proximity to him. There, in front of the superintendent's building, where they had cooped in the officers, the rashest of his followers had found themselves together, the Socialist leader had taken his stand. Dernburg's appearance seemed to him to be neither surprising nor undesired; on the contrary, there flashed into his eyes a look as of satisfaction, as he whispered to Fallner, who was constantly at his side, as a sort of adjutant:
"There is the old man! I knew that he would not stay quietly at home while the devil was to pay over at his works. Now the ball begins to roll!"
Finally Dernburg began to speak: his voice was loud and firm, and the deep silence round about caused every word to be distinctly heard.
"What means this noise here at the works? There is no reason for it. You gave warning, and I have had the workshops closed and shall keep them closed. You have been paid your wages, so now go home!"
The workmen were startled; they had been accustomed to their chiefs speaking shortly and dictatorially, but this cold, contemptuous tone they heard from his lips now for the first time. They felt it at once, without being able exactly to account for it.
Now Landsfeld deemed that the hour had come for his personal interference. "You and the rest follow me," was his brief command to Fallner, and then, without further ceremony, he turned to Dernburg.
"The question here is not one of pay," he began, with insolent mien. "What the workmen want of you, Herr Dernburg, they have already communicated to you. Those unjust dismissals are to----"
"Who are you? Who gives you the right to put in a word here?" interrupted Dernburg, although he knew the speaker by sight as well as that person knew him.
"My name is Landsfeld," was the haughty reply. "I think that suffices for my justification."
"Intermeddling from without I do not brook. Leave Odensburg on the spot!"