Cries of "Hoch," the clapping of hands and the clatter of steins and glasses upon the tables at the sides.
Order was restored with difficulty for it was clear that Herr Hochwald had swayed his hearers.
"I have said little of Fräulein Korasov, who has labored earnestly for Russia. But all women are not wise----"
"True!" interrupted a little thin man with a nasal voice upon his left.
"Indeed, few women are wise enough to face alone so grave a responsibility. Fräulein Korasov was ill-guided. She believed in the honesty of this American adventurer, and for a reason which I will give if you demand it, distrusts me. Upon the journey from Nemi to Munich last night she succeeded in taking the bank-notes from the suitcase in which I had placed them--and put them in her own bag, filling the bag I carried with rocks from the road while I was repairing a tire."
"Where is Fräulein Korasov?" thundered a voice.
Tanya shrank down in her seat, trembling, while Herr Weiss spoke words of courage in her ear, which she heard faintly above the tumult.
"In a moment, Fräulein--our time will come. Be brave. No one can harm you."
In the meanwhile Georg Senf had difficulty in restoring order, for the meeting, it seemed, had gotten beyond his control. Question after question was hurled at Herr Hochwald from all parts of the room and he shouted his replies, gaining a greater assurance with every moment and telling a plausible story of Fräulein Korasov's ruse before he discovered his loss in sending the porter Drelich to the Haupt Bahnhof with the money, from which place it had been since taken away by a confederate--and had vanished.
"Where is Fräulein Korasov?" again thundered the terrible voice.