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I visited the agricultural establishment of M. de Fellenberg, at Hofwyl, two leagues from Berne, where may be learnt the principles of rural economy, and where annual fêtes are given for the encouragement of farming; and I also made an excursion to Hindelbanck, three leagues distant, where is a much admired monument, erected from a design of M. Nahl; it represents his wife, who died in child-bed, breaking; from her tomb with her child in her arms.
Bewildered and apprehensive, I wondered whether, after all, the events of the night, the summons from Dicky Nahl, the walk in the darkness, the scene in the saloon, the encounter with the snake-eyed man, the riot, the rush up the dark stair, and the interview with the old crone, were not a fantastic vision from the land of dreams. I looked cautiously through the other rooms on the first floor.
It is near daybreak, and we are not the only ones astir." I peered out, but a rising mist from the lagoon and the bay hindered the vision, and the sound of the rolling drum had ceased. The hack swung around a few corners, and then halted. "Here we are!" cried Dicky Nahl at the door. "You get aboard the tug and push off. Jake and I will run up to the foot of the wharf.
The place had the same appearance as the one to which I had been taken by Dicky Nahl. "A fine night, Mother Borton," said Corson cheerily, as he was the first to enter, and then added under his breath, " for the divil's business." Mother Borton stared at him with a black look and muttered a curse. "Good evening," I hastened to say.
"Dicky Nahl was along here, and he said Terrill and Meeker and the other gang was holding a powwow at Borton's, and we'd best look out for surprises." "Was that all?" "Well, he said he guessed there was a new deal on hand, and they was a- buzzin' like a nest of hornets. It was hornets, wasn't it, Bob?" "Hornets was what he said," repeated Barkhouse stolidly. "Where's Dicky now?" I asked.
Here you are. I put the hack's lights out just to escape unpleasant remark. We had better be moving, for it's a stiffish drive of six or seven miles. If you'll get in, I'll keep the seat with the driver and tell him the way to go." Mrs. Knapp entered the carriage, and called to me to follow her. I remembered Mother Borton's warnings and my doubts of Dicky Nahl.
"Hello!" he cried. "House-cleaning again?" It was Dicky Nahl, and he paused with a smile on his face. "Ah, Dicky!" I said with an effort to keep out of my face and voice the suspicions I had gained from the incidents of the visit to the Borton place. "Entirely unpremeditated, I assure you." "Well, you're making a thorough job of it," he said with a laugh.
Whatever designs were brewing in the night-meeting of the conspirators, they did not appear to concern my immediate peace of body. The two following days were spent in quiet, and, in spite of warnings, I began to believe that no new plan of action had been determined on. "Don't you feel too sure of yourself," said Dicky Nahl, to whom I confided this view of the situation.
"Right as a judge," said Dicky cheerfully, "Now, if you'll get in with madam we won't be wasting time here." I stepped into the carriage. Dicky Nahl closed the door softly and climbed on the seat by the driver, and in a moment we were rolling up Broadway in the gloomy stillness of the early morning hour.
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