"Your reward for having kept it from me for years! It is my property--I shall obtain it by force."
He began to struggle with Kätchen, who held the locket convulsively in her hand, and uttered a piercing shriek, followed by a wild laugh.
"Ha-ha, and if you have it in the net, it will escape again through the meshes! It will avail you nothing, absolutely nothing--without the secret."
"Give it me, then."
"I love you--love me in return!" cried she, stretching out her arms towards him.
"Lunatic," cried Blanden, retreating, as though a sea polypus would Lave encircled him with its arms.
She caught at the empty space, then knelt down, crying and sobbing.
"Poor Kätchen has nobody in the world; her father is dead--he was always hard and stern. Ah, the sea is so wide, so wide--and the boat drifts farther and farther out--and who cares for me? You were good to me--you gave me the boat--oh, it does not lie on the shore by the post! Here--that is your boat! I had it made into my bed, my sole possession--and there I dream of you."
Blanden was moved; he drew nearer, he stroked her wet hair and said kindly--
"Poor child."