r father shyly. She had grown slim and tall far beyond
her age.

Old Jordan came down. "You don't look well, Daniel," he said, and seemed
never to let go of his hand. "Let us hope that you are going to stay
home now."

"I don't know," replied Daniel, staring absent-mindedly around the
walls. "I don't know."

On the third day he was seized with a quite unusual sense of fear and
anxiety. He felt that he had made a mistake; that he had lost his way;
that something was driving him to another place. He went into the
kitchen. Philippina was cooking potato noodles in lard; they smelt good.

"I am going to Eschenbach," he said, to his own astonishment, for the
decision to do so had come with the assertion.

Philippina jerked the pan from the stove; the flames leaped up. "You can
go to Hell, so far as I'm concerned," she said in a furious rage. With
the light from the fire flaring up through the open top of the stove and
reflected in her face, she looked like a veritable witch.

Daniel gazed at her questioningly. "What is the matter with Agnes?" he
asked after a while. "The child seems to try to avoid me."

"You'll find out what's the matter with her," said Philippina
spitefully, and placed the pan on the stove again. "She don't swallow
people whole."

Daniel left the kitchen.

"He is going over to see his bastard, the damned scoundrel," murmured
Philippina. She crouched down on the kitchen stool, and gazed into
space.

The potato noodles burned up.

IX

Daniel entered his mother's little house in Eschenbach late at night. As
soon as he saw her, he knew that some misfortune had taken place.

Eva was gone. She had disappeared one evening four weeks ago. A troupe
of rope dancers had given an exhibition in the city, and it was
generally suspected that they had abducted the child. The people of
Eschenbach were still convinced of their suspicion after the police had
rounded up the dancers without finding a trace of the child.

A general alarm had been sent out, and investigations were being made
even at the time of Daniel's arrival. But they were in vain; it was
impossible to find the slightest clue. To the authorities, indeed to
every one, the case was a hopeless riddle.

They made a thorough search of the forests; the canals were drained;
vagabonds were cross-questioned. It was all in vain; Eva had apparently
been spirited away in some mysterious fashion. Then the Mayor receive