"I shall be glad of it," replied the agent, breaking off shortly as the object of their conversation came into the room, carrying the lamp in her hand.
Gretchen Frank might be about twenty. She was no delicate, ideal beauty, but a true living picture of youth and health. There was something of her father's stately vigour about her; and, as the bright rays from the lamp fell on her fresh rosy face, with its clear blue eyes and fair crown of plaits, she looked so charming that it was easy to understand how the Assessor at once forgot that flight to the garret, and sprang to his feet in a violent hurry in order to greet the maiden.
"Good evening, Herr Assessor," said she, returning his greeting somewhat coolly. "So it was you who drove into the courtyard just now. I certainly did not expect that, as you were here only last Sunday."
The Assessor thought proper not to notice the last words. "Official business brings me here this time," he replied; "an affair of great importance which has been entrusted to me, and will detain me in this neighbourhood for some days. I have taken the liberty of making a claim on your father's hospitality. We Government men are having a bad time of it just now, Fräulein Margaret. There is a sort of dull ferment abroad everywhere, secret machinations, revolutionary tendencies! The whole province is one nest of conspirators."
"You hardly need tell us that," said the agent, drily. "I think we are at the fountain head for such news here at Wilicza."
"Yes, this Wilicza is the real centre of all their plots and intrigues," cried the Assessor, warmly. "They dare not play their game so openly at Rakowicz. It is too near L----, and is enclosed on all sides by German settlements. That somewhat shackles the noble Count Morynski; here, on the other hand, he has free elbow-room."
"And the most favourable ground to work on," added Frank; "the Nordeck domain extending to the very frontier, and all the foresters, rangers, and inspectors at the beck and call of the Princess! You would say such a sharp look-out is kept that not a cat could get across without its being known; and yet every night of our lives there is passing to and fro, and all who come from out yonder find open doors at Wilicza, though, to be sure, for the present they are only the back doors."
"We know it all, Herr Frank," asserted the Assessor, with a look which betokened omniscience, to say the least. "All, I tell you; but we can do nothing, for proofs are wanting. We can discover absolutely nothing. At the approach of one of our people the whole busy hive vanishes--sinks, so to speak, into the earth. My present mission is connected with these doings; and as you have the superintendence of the police here, I shall in some measure have to rely on you for help."
"If I must, I must; but you know how unwillingly I lend my hand to such services--though over at the Castle they insist upon it that I am a spy and a detective, because I will not deliberately close my eyes, and when the people turn refractory I proceed against them with all severity."
"But you must. There are two dangerous persons wandering about this neighbourhood under all manner of pretexts, who must be placed in safe custody if possible. I am on their traces already. On my road hither I met two most suspicious-looking individuals. They were on foot."