“What sort of language is that?”
“It is the language of a father driven to despair. I tell you”—and the countryman raised his clenched fists—“it is to the good God that you are indebted for you life; for, if I believed as little in an almighty and just God as you, with this pair of strong hands I would wring your neck. Yes, stare at me! With these hands I would strangle Shund, who has brought want upon my children and misery upon me. Come away, wife, come away. He is resolved to reduce us to beggary as he has done to so many others. Do your worst, Mr. Shund, but there above we shall have a reckoning with each other.”
He dragged his wife out of the room, and went away without saluting, but casting a terrible scowl back upon Hans Shund.
For a long while the usurer sat thoughtfully, impressed by the ominous scowl and threat, which were not empty ones, for rage and despair swept like a rack over the man’s countenance. Mr. Shund felt distinctly that but for the God of Christians he would have been murdered by the infuriated man. He discovered, moreover, that religious belief is to be recommended as a safeguard against the fury of the mob. On the other hand, he found this belief repugnant to a usurer’s conscience and a hindrance to the free enjoyment of life. Hans Shund thus sat making reflections on religion, and endeavoring to drown the echo which Holt’s summons before the supreme tribunal had awakened in a secret recess of his soul, when hasty steps resounded from the front yard and the door was suddenly burst open. Hans’ agent rushed in breathless, sank upon the nearest chair, and, opening his mouth widely, gasped for breath.
“What is the matter, Braun?” inquired Shund in surprise. “What has happened?”
Braun flung his arms about, rolled his eyes wildly, and labored to get breath, like a person that is being smothered.
“Get your breath, you fool!” growled the usurer. “What business had you running like a maniac? Something very extraordinary must be the matter, is it not?”
Braun assented with violent nodding.
“Anything terrible?” asked he further.
More nodding from Braun. The usurer began to feel uneasy. Many a nefarious deed stuck to his hands, but not one that had not been committed with all possible caution and secured against any afterclaps of the law. Yet might he not for once have been off his guard? “What has been detected? Speak!” urged the conscience-stricken villain anxiously.