isest who
does not trouble himself about them."

When the landlord was gone, Anton said gloomily to Karl, "I am afraid
that, besides our trouble with the property, much of a different nature
is going on around us, which all our skill will not be able to set
right."

This singular circumstance set the whole country in a ferment. Anton was
often summoned to Rosmin in the course of the next few weeks, but his
depositions led to no result, the authorities not succeeding in
discovering the offenders, or in getting hold of the abducted steward.

CHAPTER XXIX.

Our two colonists spent the next few weeks in such active pursuits, that
every night, when they threw themselves upon their beds, they were quite
exhausted.

Karl had been duly installed as bailiff, and held the reins of
management with a firm hand, and Anton had committed the care of the
house and kitchen to a hard-working woman, whom he found in one of the
German settlements around. The most difficult matter had been to
establish tolerably satisfactory relations with the adjacent village;
but Anton's calm decision had at all events prevented any outbreak of
opposition. One of his first measures had been to appeal, in all cases
of breach of trust or dereliction of duty, to the proper authorities.
Karl's cavalry cloak attracted a few men who had served; and through
these, the most civilized part of the community, the settlers gained
some influence over others. At length, several voluntarily offered to
become servants at the castle, or day-laborers on the estate.

Anton had written to the baroness, not disguising from her the state of
the property, nor the unfriendly feeling of the district, and his own
anxiety about the family moving thither in the course of the next
winter. He had asked whether she would not prefer to remain till spring
in the capital. In reply, he received a letter from Lenore, in which she
told him, on the part of her parents, that they abode by their former
resolve to leave the town, which had now become a painful residence to
them all. She therefore begged him to have the castle put into a
habitable condition as soon as possible.

Anton called out to his ally, "They are actually coming."

"They are, are they?" said Karl. "It is fortunate that we have heard of
workmen--masons, joiners, locksmiths, glaziers, potters, and so on. If
you will allow me, I will at once send a messenger off to Rosmin. If I
could only get off this ugly bro