The old man hurried down, and presently returned with the bag of money that Roland had asked of him. Before this happened, however, Roland, watching the barge, saw it round to, and tie up at the shore some distance above Assmannshausen. He took the gold, and passed down the stone stair to the courtyard.
“I shall return,” he said, “before the sun sets,” and without more ado, this extraordinary captive left his prison, and descended the hill in the direction of the barge.
After greeting Captain Blumenfels, he learned that the boat had been delayed by running on a sandbank in the Main during the night, but they had got it off at daybreak, and here they were. As, standing on the shore, Roland talked with the captain on the barge, he saw approaching from Assmannshausen two men whom he recognized. Telling the captain he might not be ready for several days, he walked along the shore to meet his astonished friends, who, as was usual with them, jumped at an erroneous conclusion, and supposed that he arrived on the barge which they had seen rounding to for the purpose of taking up her berth by the river-bank.
Greusel and Ebearhard stood still until he came up to them.
“Good afternoon, gentlemen. Are you here alone, or have you brought the mob with you?”
“Your capable lieutenant, sir,” said Ebearhard, before his slower companion could begin to frame a sentence, “allowed the men to think they were having their own way, but in reality diverted them into his, so they are now enjoying a credit of one liter each at the tavern of the Golden Anker.”
“That,” said Roland, “is but as a drop of water in a parched desert. Have they discovered you hold the money, Greusel?”
“No, not yet; but I fear they will begin to suspect by and by. I suppose you went down the valley of the brook to the Rhine, and overhauled the barge there?”
“I suppose so,” said Roland. “What else did you think I could do?”
“I was sure you had done that, but I feared you would turn the barge back to Frankfort.”