"We shall have to carry him home, if you, fair lady, have not perhaps a snug little place for him somewhere," replied Mr. Timm, with a look full of meaning.
"You scamp!" said the lady, pinching Mr. Timm's cheeks. "I will have to stop you."
"I hope so--with a kiss."
"You scamp, you!" said the lady, evidently not unwilling to try the experiment.
Mr. Timm seemed to be afraid of it, for he suddenly turned to Mr. Schmenckel and began to shake him, first gently, then more vigorously, and at last as hard as he could.
"Uff!" groaned the giant, half asleep yet; "let me go, I'll manage the boy."
"What will he do?" asked the man with the odd eyes.
"Oh, he is talking in his sleep," said Mr. Timm, "give me a glass of water, Lizzie; I believe that will wake him up."
At last the colossus stood upright, but not without swaying to and fro like a beacon in a storm. Still he could stand on his feet now, and, as Mr. Goodheart happened to know where he lived, the task of carrying him home seemed feasible. Mr. Timm seized him by one arm, the man with the odd eyes by the other, and thus they managed to lift him up to the cellar door and into the street.
The night was as dark as a night can be when there are no stars visible. The wind was sweeping mournfully through the deserted streets and threatened to extinguish the few gas-lights that were still burning. Mr. Schmenckel recovered in the fresh air somewhat, and embraced his companions tenderly; then he vowed them eternal friendship, and promised each of them a hundred thousand roubles as soon as it should be fully established that Prince Waldenberg, whom he had whipped that day under the Lindens, was really his own son. Thus they reached the street, then the house, and at last even the little bed-room in which Director Caspar Schmenckel, from Vienna, was residing for the present. Mr. Schmenckel sank down upon his modest couch, and his two companions left him, but not until Mr. Jeremiah had pulled out a dark-lantern from his pocket and gone about, to Mr. Timm's great astonishment, examining every corner of the room. What he found was not much: iron balls, brass balls, sticks and staves of all kinds, drums and trumpets, odds and ends, all in fearful disorder.