"What for?" asked the younger, abruptly.
"I wish to know them."
"But, unfortunately, we do not care to tell you."
The assessor nodded as if to say, "I thought as much." "I am connected with the police department of L----," he added, emphatically.
"A very unenviable position," returned the younger, glancing from the assessor to Gretchen, who was standing at the window.
Hubert was nonplussed for a moment. These must be hardened conspirators, for they were not frightened even at mention of the police department, and yet the words must give them a premonition of their fate. This obduracy must be broken; the examination went on.
"You drove past me in an extra-post-chaise some two hours ago?"
The younger deigned no answer; he seemed bored beyond measure; but the elder man replied politely,--
"Yes; and we also observed you in your carriage."
"You left the chaise at the last station, and proceeded on foot. According to your own admission, you wished to go to Villica; you avoided the highway and took a path across the fields." The assessor again wore his doomsday face as he hurled these accusations one after another at the heads of the two conspirators. They did not fail of their effect. The elder conspirator began to grow uneasy; but the younger, whom the piercing glance of the government official had singled out as the most dangerous, hastily approached and placed his hand upon the arm of his companion's chair.