ged. "I'd gone to sleep, and
suddenly woke and remembered that I had left my new jacket on deck, and
if the snow kept on it would be ruined by morning. As I went astern, I
heard something strike the boat like a log of wood. The lady must have
a hard skull or it would have been broken. Do you know her, sir?" Mohr
made no reply. He had enough to do to collect his thoughts and decide
upon what was to be done.

"Have you a litter?" he asked. "You can make three thalers by putting
the lady on it and carrying her a hundred paces to a house where she
will be received. I'll answer for the rest, and if the police should
afterwards find out that you didn't give them notice of the affair,
I'll take all the responsibility. But make haste, before it's too
late!--There, lay her flat on her back and cover her with this cloak.
And now forward--"

Not another word was spoken. His hasty, imperious manner, the promised
reward and the prospect of getting rid of the disagreeable business,
urged the sailors to the utmost speed. Two stout men lifted the
motionless figure on a flat frame, which was used for unloading baskets
of fruit, and fastened her firmly on it with a broad girdle. Her
clothes and hair were still dripping with water, as she was raised and
carefully carried up the steps of the landing. Then the bearers moved
swiftly forward with their burden, while the others remained on the
boats dividing the money among them. Mohr was the only one who followed
the bier. He had not trusted himself to touch the lifeless body, but as
it was raised he bent over the litter to keep it steady, and had
brushed her hand with his cheek; its icy coldness froze the blood in
his veins.

He ordered the bearers to stop before the artist's little house, but
was obliged to ring the bell at the gate of the timber-yard a long
time, before any one moved. How terribly long the moments were! Who
could tell whether a hundred seconds more or less might not decide
whether that motionless breast would ever again be heaved by the breath
of life?

At last a door behind the wood pile opened, a flickering light
appeared, and the zaunkoenig's voice was heard asking: "what's the
matter?" A very few words were enough to urge the kind-hearted little
man to breathless haste. His trembling hands instantly opened the
little door beside the gate, and without another syllable being
uttered, the sad procession moved along the dark path to the little
house.