Eugénie made no answer. She had feared this man so intensely, had been a prey to such unutterable alarm ever since she heard that Arthur had undertaken the dangerous task in his company, and now it was to this man's presence alone she owed her husband's life and rescue.
The chief-engineer came up to them. His face was very grave and his voice sounded almost solemn as he said:
"The doctor says they will all be saved, all but one; for Hartmann no help can avail! The efforts he made down in the mine to-day were too much even for his strength, and the wound has done the rest. How, in such a state as that he could possibly have worked a way for himself and you through the ruins, have raised you into the cage and held you until you were in safety, is almost incomprehensible. No one but himself could have done it; he has succeeded, but he will pay for it with his life."
Arthur looked at his wife. Their eyes met, and they understood each other. In spite of his exhaustion, he shook himself together, took Eugénie's hand and drew her with him to the spot where prompt aid and attention were being lavished on the sufferers. Only one, the last, had been carried to one side. Ulric lay stretched on the ground; his father was still unconscious and knew nothing of his son's state, but he was not therefore left alone or altogether dependent on the help of strangers.
At his side a girl was kneeling, holding the dying man's head in her arms, and gazing into his face with a look of heart-breaking anguish: she paid no heed to her lover, who was standing on the other side holding his friend's hand, now rapidly growing cold Ulric saw neither of them, perhaps no longer knew that they were there. His eyes were wide open and fixed on the flaming sky, on the setting sun, as if he would drink in one last ray of the external light and carry it with him down into the shades of the long dark night.
Arthur put a question in an undertone to the doctor standing by; he answered with a silent shake of the head. The master knew enough. He left his wife's hand free, whispered a few words in her ear, and then stepped back, while Eugénie bent over Ulric and spoke his name.
Then life leapt up within him again, flashing one last gleam through the mists of death. Perfectly conscious now, he turned upon her a look in which all the glow and passion of former days were for one moment concentrated. She put a timid low question.
"Hartmann, are you badly wounded?"
His face quivered with the old pain, and he answered in low broken tones, but quietly,
"Why do you ask about me? You have him, why should I live on? I told you before, it should be he or I.... I meant it differently, but that was what came into my head when the wall fell in. I thought of you and your grief .... I remembered that he had held out his hand to me when no one else would .... and then .... then I threw myself over him."