a bankrupt, groping with empty hands in
empty pockets. He ought to speak, ought to open the sluices on the other
side of which the flood of his passionate love must have gathered and
risen high; but all the waters had trickled away, all the sources had
dried up. To mask the aridity of his soul, he adopted his old method of
a curt, dictatorial manner.

LVIII

It was the fifth of February, about thirteen days after the _Roland_
had left Bremen, and twelve after Frederick had boarded the _Roland_
at the Needles in the Channel, when the pilot took the guidance of
the _Hamburg_. Compared with the length of the _Fuerst Bismarck's_
record-making passage, this was an extremely long time. But how
inconceivably brief it seemed to him when he recalled all he had
experienced in that period, both in his waking and sleeping hours. On
the _Hamburg_, he no longer dreamed at night. A mighty blast had swept
his soul clean and denuded it of all images.

Shortly before ten o'clock in the morning of the sixth of February,
Captain Butor, standing back of Ella Liebling, who was sitting under
the telescope merrily kicking her thin legs, spied land. It was a
tremendously stirring moment when the news was carried to the passengers.
The steward that called it into Frederick's cabin and the next instant
disappeared little realised how his brief announcement, "Land!" affected
the stranger. Frederick closed the door, shaken by great, hollow,
toneless sobs coming from the depths of his being.

"Such is life," went through his heart. "Did not a steward on a gloomy,
horrid night call 'Danger!' into my cabin, like the shouting of a death
sentence into the cell of a poor sinner by both the judge and the
hangman? And now comes the peaceful piping of the shepherd's reed, while
the thunder is still rolling." It was not until his sobbing ceased that
he felt a thrill of bliss, as if life were again drawing near in triumph.
A flash of feeling set him afire, as when a vast army approaches with
music playing and banners flying, an army of invincible brethren, among
whom he is safe at home again. Never before had life come rolling toward
him in waves so strong or colours so shining. One must have been cast
very, very deep down in darkness and confusion to learn that there is no
more glorious sun in all God's heavens than the sun that shines upon our
earth.

The other passengers from the _Roland_ were each in his own way affected
by the call of "Lan