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An agonizing fear began to master him, and he tossed about in his bed unable to sleep. "I must make matters easy for them," he thought one morning, and ordered the basket carriage, which a short time ago he had bought at an auction, to be got ready, and drove to Lotkeim, the Erdmanns' estate, which they kept up together since their parents' death.
They sounded in his ear like the knell of all that was good. In the wood, behind which a side path branched off to Lotkeim, he halted, tied his horse to a distant trunk of a tree, and took off the bells so that their jingling should not prematurely betray him. Then he took the revolver out of the boot of the sledge and examined the cartridges. Six shots two for each no harm in having an extra one.
Between the leaves rust-colored ants were creeping, and a lizard rustled down into the green depths. Silently they both stood there, and Paul trembled. Neither dared to interrupt the solemn stillness. "Where have they buried my father?" Paul asked at last. "Your sisters took the body over to Lotkeim," answered Elsbeth. "That is as well," he replied.
I will relinquish the last remnant of pride, if only my sisters can be saved." He vowed it with uplifted arms, and hurried out onto the heath. For wellnigh three hours he struggled along the snowed-up roads. It might have been eight o'clock when he stopped, tired and breathless, before the gates of Lotkeim.
Two days after his last visit to Lotkeim he had driven to the town and bought a revolver; a beautiful six-shooter, one with a long slender barrel. Like a wild animal he lurked about at night in the bushes and hidden paths of the heath when he thought they would pass. But they did not come.
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