"I always thought the loser could break up the game, not the winner."
"If the winner is not sure of his point--oh! yes."
"I demand an explanation!" cried Brandow, pushing the table aside.
"Why, Brandow, do be reasonable!" exclaimed Otto and Gustav von Plüggen, in the same breath.
"Are you in partnership again?" answered Brandow with a sneering laugh, and then stepped before Redebas: "I demand an explanation at once!"
The giant had drawn back a step: "Oho," he cried; "if that's what you want, come on!"
"My dear Brandow," said the Assessor soothingly, putting himself between them.
"I know what I am doing, Herr Assessor," answered Brandow, pushing him aside.
"And I know too," cried Redebas, throwing up the window, and shouting across the quiet court-yard in a voice like the roar of a lion. "Harness the horses, August! harness the horses!"
A scene of wild confusion followed, in which all shouted together, so that Gotthold could only distinguish a word here and there. Hans Redebas raved loudest of all, but apparently quite as much from fear as anger, while Brandow remained comparatively calm, and was evidently intent upon separating the Assessor, who was constantly intermeddling, from the three others whom the Pastor now joined, and by all possible signs announced his intention of making a speech, in which he actually several times got as far as the beginning: "My beloved friends!"