“You are not going off so!” he cried. “I shall detain this horse as security.”
And, filled with anger, he tried to stop Bruno; but Coucou Peter, pushing him back roughly, seized a stick from behind the stable door, and exclaimed—
“Stand back! There is nothing in common between you and me!”
Jacob Fischer hung on to the bridle, and Mathéus said gently—
“Put back your stick behind the door, my dear disciple—put this stick back into its place.”
Coucou Peter looked as if he were disinclined to obey; but when he saw the crowd stream down the steps into the yard, he remembered the psychological lessons of Oberbronn and gave in.
Almost at the same moment a number of people surrounded the horse, the illustrious philosopher, and his disciple. Each one related the occurrence in his own manner, and Mathéus was deeply distressed at hearing all these cries, speeches, and explanations; for if some approved, others highly blamed him for wishing to go away without paying.
Among the crowd were Jacob Fischer and his wife, big Orchel and little Katel, Hans Aden and Dame Thérèse, Kasper-Siébel, the son of Ludwig-Siébel the blacksmith, Passauf the garde champêtre, in his large gendarme’s hat, the Anabaptist Pelsly, and the mayor in tri-coloured scarf. There was a great tumult.
At length the mayor succeeded in obtaining silence, and Jacob Fischer then stated the case.
“These people,” he said, “owe me for lodging in the outhouse, for four dinners at thirty sous, and two feeds of oats; that makes seventeen francs. If they go off, where are they? I know nothing of them. Coucou Peter never has a sou. I demand that the horse shall be left in pledge.”