“It is easy to find out, at any rate,” said the major; “he is close by, in the gaard.”
“Wait a moment!” cried M. Goefle, who was always on the breach with his fixed idea. “Did you not tell me, Christian, that you had upset the baron this evening, on returning from the hunt?”
“I told you that the baron had overturned me, and was upset himself in consequence,” replied Christian.
“It is all the same thing,” rejoined the lawyer; “whatever was in the two sleighs must have rolled pell-mell together on the road; and this—”
“It belongs to the physician, I wager!” said Christian. “Leave it here, Olof; we will send it to him.”
“Give it to me!” resumed M. Goefle, in a brief, authoritative tone. “The only way of finding out to whom an anonymous portfolio belongs, is to open it, and that shall be my duty.”
“You assume the responsibility, Monsieur Goefle?” said the scrupulous major.
“Yes, monsieur,” replied M. Goefle, opening the portfolio, “and I call upon you to witness what I do. You are here to examine the facts of a lawsuit, which it will perhaps be my mission to plead. Here is a letter from M. Johan to his master. I know his writing, and at the first glance, I see in it: ‘The man with the marionettes—Guido Massarelli—The chamber of roses!’—Ah, indeed! the baron, like the senate, assumes the privilege of having his own! Major, this document is very important, and the other, perhaps—for there are two—is still more so. Your commission requires you to acquaint yourself with them.”
“May I go?” said the young danneman, who, like the peasants of all countries, was terribly afraid of the law, and who accordingly, as soon as he began vaguely to understand that the examination for a suit was going on, wanted to make his escape, lest he should be involved in it by having to give his testimony.
“No,” replied the major, “you must remain and listen.”