"Because, when I got to the weir I saw two lovers standing on the drawbridge!"
"And that's why?..."
"Then I thought it was a regular disgrace and a crying shame, and no longer--"
"Let them love each other, in the devil's name!"
"And I thought it my duty to tell you. Master, when Master Johannes and our lady--"
He gets no further, for his master's fingers are at his throat.
What has come over Martin, wretched man? His face becomes livid and swollen; the veins on his forehead stand out; his nostrils quiver, his eyes seem to start from their sockets--white foam is at his mouth.
Then he gives vent to a sound like the howl of a jackal, and, loosening his grip of David, with one wrench he tears the shirt at his throat asunder.
Two or three deep breaths, like a man who is achoking; then he roars aloud in suddenly unfettered rage: "Where are they? They shall account to me for this. They have been acting a farce! They have deceived me! Where are they? I'll do for them! I'll do for them, then and there!"
He tears the lantern out of terrified David's hand and rushes out. He disappears into the wheel-house; a second later he reappears. High above his head there gleams an axe. Then he swings the lantern thrice in a circle and flings it far away from him into the water. He storms along in the direction of the weir.