"That he may see a veritable bale-fire," Benno interposed. "There is one kindled in Oberstein too, but there the entire village, all the labourers on the railway, the engineers, and a crowd of guests from Heilborn are assembled, and so the fine old custom comes to be only a noisy spectacle for strangers. Up here we have the genuine unadulterated mountain-life. And there is Sepp! How are you, old fellow? Yes, we are here. You would rather we were not to-night, I know, and therefore I said not one word in Oberstein of our expedition. You must put up with us,--that is, with the Herr Superintendent and the stranger gentleman there,--for Fräulein von Thurgau and I belong here."
"Yes, you belong here," said Sepp, solemnly. "You surely ought not to be absent."
"I should like to protest against being treated as an entire stranger," said Wolfgang. "I have been living for three years in the mountains."
"But in constant war with them," Waltenberg interposed, half ironically. "That would hardly establish your right to feel at home among them, it seems to me."
"At most only the right of the conqueror;" Erna said, coldly. "Herr Elmhorst upon his arrival here was wont to boast that he would take possession of the realm of the Mountain-Sprite and bind it in chains."
"You see, however, Fräulein Thurgau," Wolfgang replied, in the same tone, "that it was no empty boast. We have brought her under subjection, the haughty ruler of the mountains. She made it difficult enough for us, so intrenching herself in her forests and fields that we were obliged to contend for every step of our way; but she was conquered at last. By the end of autumn the last structures will be completed, and next spring our trains will thunder through this entire Wolkenstein domain."
"I am sorry for the magnificent valley," said Waltenberg. "All its beauty will be lost when steam once takes possession of it and the shrill whistle of the locomotive invades the sublime repose of the mountains."
Wolfgang shrugged his shoulders: "I am sorry, but such romantic considerations cannot have any weight where the question is one of furnishing the world with roads for travel."
"The world which belongs to you! Here in Europe you have mastered it with steam and iron. We who would find some quiet valley wherein to dream undisturbed shall finally be obliged to seek it in some distant island in the ocean."
"Assuredly, Herr Waltenberg, if such dreaming seem to you the sole aim of existence. For us it is action."