The riders had stopped their horses; Carl Brandow looked up the hill and over the marsh.
"You are crazy," he said again.
"Crazy or not," exclaimed Hinrich Scheel impatiently, "it must be done. I went to Salchow this morning to hear what Mr. Thompson had to say. The fellow always knows everything, and declares that they have enclosed a piece of marshy ground in the race-course for Brownlock's special benefit, because they think he is too heavy to cross it, and you'll be obliged to take a wide sweep around. Well, sir, if you make the victory so easy for Bessy, Count Grieben and the other gentlemen will be very well satisfied, and I can be satisfied too."
"You would be no better, suited than I," said Brandow, and then muttered between his teeth: "everything is all of a piece now."
"Shall I?" said Hinrich Scheel, who probably perceived his master's irresolution.
"For aught I care."
A ray of joy flitted over Hinrich's ugly face. He turned the horse, which had long been champing his bit impatiently, and galloped a hundred paces to the left, to the edge of the marsh, then paused and shouted:
"Ready?"
"Yes!"
"Now!"