suddenly rose in revolt, and he said aloud:
"Kindle the light of reason, kindle the light of reason, O God in
heaven!"
He rose in his berth, and saw that Rosa, the servant-girl, was in reality
holding a burning candle over him. She bent down slightly, and said:
"You are dreaming hard. Aren't you feeling well, Doctor von Kammacher?"
The door creaked. The servant-girl Rosa had left. The ship was moving
quietly. Or was he mistaken? Was the _Roland_ no longer proceeding so
calmly and steadily as before? He listened intently, and heard the screw
whirring regularly under the water. Monotonous calls penetrated from the
deck. Then came the loud rattling of the cinders pouring overboard.
Frederick looked at his watch. It was five o'clock. So three hours had
passed since he had first awakened! Again, with a clatter and a thunder,
a load of ashes slid into the Atlantic Ocean. Was it not the mates of the
dead stoker, Zickelmann, who were throwing it overboard? Frederick heard
the crying of children, thereupon the sobbing and whimpering of his
hysterical neighbour, and finally Rosa's voice, trying to quiet Siegfried
and Ella, who was a talkative little girl. Siegfried was fretfully
begging to be taken back to his grandmother in Luckenwalde. Mrs. Liebling
was scolding Rosa, telling her she was responsible for the children's
behaviour. Frederick heard her say:
"You all trample about on my nerves. I wish the three of you were at the
bottom of the sea. For heaven's sake, let me sleep!"
XXXIII
Notwithstanding all these impressions, Frederick fell asleep again. He
dreamed that he and Rosa, the maid, and little Siegfried Liebling were in
a life-boat, rocking on a calm, shimmering green sea. Strangely enough,
there was a mass of gold ingots in the bottom of the boat, probably the
gold ingots that the _Roland_ was supposed to be carrying to the mint in
Washington. Frederick was at the helm, and after cruising about a while,
they reached a bright, cheery port. It may have been a port in the
Azores, or the Madeira Islands, or the Canary Islands. At a short
distance from the quay, Rosa jumped overboard and reached land holding
Siegfried clear of the water. People received them, and they disappeared
in one of the snowy white buildings at the harbour front. When Frederick
landed, to his joy he was greeted on the marble steps of the quay by his
old friend, Peter Schmidt, the physician he intended to visit in America.
In resp
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