"I have an important affair to discuss with you," he said at last.
"Perhaps you would rather speak to me at my own house?" said Adler, realizing that with such an excited person it might be better to talk out of earshot of the clerks. He might have some claim on him.
The stranger hesitated for a moment, and then spoke quickly:
"All right; let us go to the house. I have been there already."
"Were you looking for me?"
"Yes; because—you see, Pan Adler, we have taken Ferdinand there."
The thought of a calamity of any kind was so far from Adler that he asked quite cheerfully:
"Was Ferdinand so drunk that you had to bring him home?"
"He is wounded," replied the stranger.
They were now in front of the house. Adler stopped.