"You will probably have patience a short time longer, when I tell you that your future fate must be decided now and here."
"My fate? Are you mad?"
"Decide for yourself. Hinrich Scheel was found by me yesterday evening in Wiessow, where he had concealed himself, and is now at my lodgings guarded by the brothers Prebrow."
Brandow staggered back as if a bullet had struck him, until his hand clutched the arm of a chair, and in that attitude stood staring at Gotthold with eyes that seemed starting from their sockets.
"Hinrich Scheel!" he stammered.
"Whom you thought had disappeared from the scene forever, though you were careless or niggardly enough not even to pay off your accomplice properly. I am now obliged to have him watched, not to prevent his escape--he has no wish to fly, he will endure any punishment if only the man for whom he did what he did, does not escape; I have him watched simply to prevent his taking this punishment into his own harsh, cruel hands."
Brandow had sunk into the chair. His shameless courage and elastic strength seemed to have utterly deserted him; he looked ten years older; but suddenly he started up again.
"Bah!" he cried, "do you think you can frighten me in that way? If that rascal Hinrich has allowed himself to be caught, so much the worse for him! What harm can he do me? I hope my word will weigh no less than that of a rascally groom, who has evidently been bribed by my enemies. A man who knows himself innocent cares nothing for bribery: or do you really expect to make any one believe that, if even a suspicion could have fallen upon me from any quarter, I would have let the fellow go without securing his silence in some way? That is certainly sheer nonsense: or will you say, he gave him nothing, so that if he were caught no one would ask, From whom and for what did you get this money? Settle it among yourselves, and do as you please--an honest man like me laughs at your threats."
Again he went towards the door, but his step grew slower the nearer he approached it; and ere he reached the threshold, he turned on his heel and came up to Gotthold with a smile on his lips.
"Let us drop the tragic masks, Gotthold, and talk like sensible people; what are your conditions?"