"This very morning. Poor fellow, his aged father——"
"I don't care a curse for his aged father. What train?"
"The half-past nine train. He went in the post-cart at seven."
Dellwig jerked his horse round, and without a word rode away in the direction of Stralsund. "I'll catch him yet," he thought, and rode as hard as he could.
"What can he want with the vicar?" wondered Frau Manske.
"A rough manner, but I doubt not a good heart," said her husband, sighing; and he folded his flapping dressing-gown pensively about his legs.
Klutz was on the platform waiting for the Berlin train, due in five minutes, when Dellwig came up behind and laid a hand on his shoulder.
"What! Are you going to jump out of your skin?" Dellwig inquired with a burst of laughter.
Klutz stared at him speechlessly after that first start, waiting for what would follow. His face was ghastly.
"Father so bad, eh?" said Dellwig heartily. "Nerves all gone, what? Well, it's enough to make a boy look pale to have his father on his last——"