In the hall Elke came to meet him: "How about the lock?" she asked.
He looked down at her with a mysterious smile: "We shall soon need another lock," he said; "and sluices and a new dike."
"I don't understand," returned Elke, as they walked into the room; "what do you want to do, Hauke?"
"I want," he began slowly and then stopped for a second, "I want the big foreland that begins opposite our place and stretches on westward to be diked in and made into a solid enclosure. The high floods have left us in peace for almost a generation now; but when one of the bad ones comes again and destroys the growth down there--then all at once there'll be an end to all this glory. Only the old slackway has let things stay like this till to-day."
She looked at him with astonishment: "Why, you are scolding yourself!" she said.
"I am, Elke; but till now there were so many other things to do."
"Yes, Hauke; surely, you have done enough."
He had sat down in the armchair of the old dikemaster, and his hands were clutching both arms fast.
"Have you the courage for it?" his wife asked him.
"I have that, Elke," he spoke hastily.