"Herr Frank," he cried, "guard the entrance, call in the men. You have the direction of the Wilicza police--you must support me. I arrest these two persons in the name of ..."
Here his voice deserted him; he fought desperately in the air, and at last, by a violent jerk, managed to get himself into a sitting posture.
The younger stranger had risen and gone up to the steward. "Herr Frank, you hold the direction of the Wilicza police as proxy for me, and you will, I trust, reflect before delivering up your own principal."
"Who?" cried the steward, starting back.
The stranger drew a paper from his breast-pocket and held it out to him. "I come quite unexpectedly, and after ten years you can hardly be expected to recognise me, so this letter may serve for my credentials. You addressed it to me a few weeks since."
Frank cast a rapid glance at the page, and another as rapid at the features of the man before him. "Herr Nordeck?"
That gentleman assented. "Waldemar Nordeck, who in the very hour of his return to his own estates has come near being arrested as a suspicious vagrant. A most agreeable welcome, certainly."
He looked across at the sofa. There sat the Assessor, stiff and motionless as a statue, with mouth wide open, arms pendant, staring at the young landowner as though he were out of his mind.
"What a painful misunderstanding!" said the steward, in great confusion. "I am very sorry it should have happened in my house, Herr Nordeck. The Assessor will regret his mistake exceedingly ..."
The poor Assessor! He was so crushed, he had not even strength to apologise. The master of Wilicza, the man of many millions, of whom the President had lately spoken, saying that, should he come to Wilicza, he was to be treated with special consideration--and he, the subordinate, had threatened to have this personage conveyed handcuffed to L----! Fortunately Waldemar took no notice of him. He now presented his companion to the steward and the steward's daughter.