nd I came to get Herr Fischelowitz himself to come and prove
that the Gigerl was his. You see why I am in such a hurry."

"Do you think they have arrested the Count?"

"I imagine that every one concerned would be taken to the police-station."

"And then?"

"And then, unless the affair is cleared up, they will be kept there all
night."

"All night!" exclaimed Akulina, holding up her hands in real or affected
horror. "Poor Count! He will be quite crazy, now, I fear--especially as
this is Tuesday evening."

"But he must be got out at once!" cried Schmidt in a tone of decision.
"Herr Fischelowitz will surely not allow--"

"No indeed! You have only to wait until he comes home, and then you can go
together. Or better still, if he does not come back in a quarter of an
hour, and if he has really shut up the shop as usual, you might look for
him at the Cafe Luitpold, and if he is not there, it is just possible that
he may have looked in at the Gaertner Platz Theatre, for which he often has
free tickets, and if the performance is over--I fancy it is, by this
time--he may be in the Cafe Maximilian, or he may have gone to drink a
glass of beer in the Platzl, for he often goes there, and--well, if you do
not find him in any of those places--"

"But, good Heavens, Frau Fischelowitz, you said you were quite sure he was
coming home at once! Now I have lost all this time!"

Schmidt had risen quickly to his feet, in considerable anxiety and haste.
Akulina smiled good-humouredly.

"You see," she said, "it is just possible that to-night, as he was a
little annoyed with me for being sharp with the Count, he may have gone
somewhere without telling me. But I really could not foresee it, because
he is such a very good--"

"I know," interrupted the Cossack. "If I miss him, you will tell him, will
you not? Thank you, and good-night, Frau Fischelowitz, I cannot afford to
wait a moment longer."

So saying Johann Schmidt made for the door and got out of the house this
time without any attempt on the part of his amiable hostess to detain him
further. She had indeed omitted to tell him that her last speech was not
merely founded on a supposition, since Fischelowitz had really been very
much annoyed and had declared that he would not come home but would spend
the evening with a friend of his who lived in the direction of Schwabing,
one of the suburbs of Munich farthest removed from the places in which she
advised Schmidt to make search.