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The handsome, soldierly-looking Herr Foerster stood by their carriage and gave them a "Glueck-liche Reise!" and a warm "Auf Wiedersehen!" as they drove away. Returning up the steps slowly and seriously, he caught the eye of Sepp and Federl, who had been looking after the carriage as it turned out of sight beyond the bridge: "Schade!" said the Herr Foerster, and went into the house.
"I left them visiting Federl and Sepp in their quarters." "Well, you will find us in that dreadful little room yonder. It's the only alternative to sitting in the Bauernstube with all the woodchoppers and their bad tobacco, since out of doors fails us. We must go now and make it as pleasant as we can." Ruth made a motion to go, but Mrs Dene lingered.
Like a good South German he hated Prussia and all its works, and his tales were mostly of Berliners who had wandered thither and been abused; of the gentleman who had been told, and believed, that the "gams" slept by hooking its horns into crevices of the rock, swinging thus at ease, over precipices; of another whom Federl once deterred from going on the mountains by telling how a chamois, if enraged, charged and butted; of a third who went home glad to have learned that the chamois produced their peculiar call by bringing up a hind leg and whistling through the hoof.
"Ach, ja! Sepp knows the springs where the deer drink," said Federl. "And you never took us there!" cried Ruth, reproachfully. "I would give anything to see the deer come and drink at sundown." Sepp felt his good breeding under challenge. "If the gracious Frau permits," with a gentlemanly bow to Mrs Dene, "and the ladies care to come but the way is hard "
They rose promptly and were moving away; Mrs Dene begged them to remain, and they sat down again, diffidently, but with dignity. "Herr Sepp," said Ruth, smiling a little mischievously, "how is this? Herr Federl shot a stag of eight this morning, and I hear that yesterday you missed a Reh-bock!" Sepp reddened, and laughed. "Only wait, gracious Fraulein, next week it is my turn on the Red Peak."
Miss Ruth Dene stood in front of the Forester's lodge at Trauerbach one evening at sunset, and watched such a spot on the almost perpendicular slope that rose opposite, high above her head. Some Jaegers and the Forester were looking, too. "My glass, Federl! Ja! 's ist'n gams!" "Gems?" inquired Miss Dene, excited by her first view of a chamois. "Ja!
"Only think!" cried Ruth breathlessly, "Federl shot a stag of ten this morning at daybreak on the Red Peak, and he's frightened out of his wits, for only the duke has a right to do that. Federl mistook it for a stag of eight. And they're in the velvet, besides!" she added rather incoherently. " What luck! Poor Federl! I asked him if that meant strafen, and he said he guessed not, only zanken."
"Schade!" said Federl. "Jammer-schade!" growled Sepp. On the platform at Schicksalsee, Rex and Ruth were walking while they waited for the train. "Ruth," said Rex, "I hope you never will need a friend's life to save yours from harm; but if you do, take mine." "Yes, Rex." She raised her eyes and looked into the distance. Far on the horizon loomed the Red Peak.
Her eyes were cast down, and she was nervously plaiting the edge of her little black-bordered handkerchief. All at once she raised her eyes and looked straight at the window. How blue her eyes were! Rex dropped his face in his hands. "Oh God! I love her!" he groaned. "Gute Nacht, gnaedige Herrn!" Sepp and Federl stood in their door with a light.
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