“Excuse,” said the man, and with another salute he turned and went on his way along the river.
Scanlon returned to the castle and was admitted, much to his surprise, by Miss Knowles.
“You must have gone a great way to-day,” she said, with a smile which showed her beautiful teeth.
“Quite a bit of a stride,” acknowledged the big man. “But then it’s a bracing morning, and a fellow should put such days to good use.”
“Kretz seems to think the same,” said she. “He asked leave to go, and I promised to keep the gate. But,” and her head shook slowly, “he didn’t cross the hills, as you did; he seemed to prefer to take the path along the river.”
“That so?” said Bat. And, mentally, he added: “Oh, golden Helen, what makes you always speak in double meanings? This is the first time I’ve seen you to-day, and you are at it already.”
“But then Kretz has shown a preference for the river of late,” the girl went on. “I’ve noticed that he likes to stand upon the wall overlooking it.”
“Every man to his own fancy,” spoke Mr. Scanlon.
“It may be that it has reminded him of some stream he knew at home in Germany. The banks are rather picturesque, don’t you think? At places they are really wonderful!”
The big man rolled himself a cigarette and considered. The river bank, eh? What was all this talk about it—this talk, and other things? He had noticed when he first came to Schwartzberg that the river had a bank; as a matter of fact, it had two of them. But that’s all it, or they, had been—just bank, or banks.