land to it. In the meantime the mysterious steps
were coming ever nearer; the man in such haste had now reached the end
of the stone stairs and was climbing the ladder to the roof. The clock
below rumbled. It was almost two. Apollonius had not yet had dinner,
but when there was a flaw of any kind in his work he could not rest
until he had rectified it. He had gone back to fetch the ladder. It
lay on the beam near the swinging-seat. As he stooped to get it he
felt himself seized and pushed with wild violence toward the door.
Instinctively he caught hold of the lower edge of a beam with his
right hand while with his left he sought in vain for support. This
movement brought him face to face with his assailant. Horrified he saw
the distorted, wild features of his brother.

"You shall have her all to yourself, or down you go with me."

"Away!" cried Apollonius. In his angry pain all his reproaches against
his brother mounted into his face. Exerting all his strength he pushed
him back with his free hand.

"So you show your true face, at last?" mocked Fritz Nettenmair in
still greater rage. "You have dislodged me from every place that I
possessed; now it is my turn. You shall have me on your conscience,
you fluff-picker. Throw me over, or down you go with me!"

Apollonius saw no deliverance. The hand with which he held desperately
to the sharp edge of the beam was well-nigh exhausted. With all his
strength he would have to seize his brother by the arms, turn him
round and push him over if he did not want to be dragged down with
him. And yet he cried: "I will not!"

"Very well," groaned Fritz. "You want to put the blame of this too on
me; you want to make me do this too. Your sanctimoniousness shall now
have an end." Apollonius would have sought a new hold, but he knew
that his brother would take advantage of the instant when he let go
his present one. Fritz was already just on the point of making a
violent dash at him. Apollonius' hand was slipping from the edge of
the beam. He would be lost if he did not find some new hold. He could
perhaps make a jump and catch the beam with both hands; but then his
brother, by the force of his own onset, would certainly fall through
the door. A vision of his honest, proud, old father, of the young wife
and her children, rose before him, and he remembered the vow that he
had made to himself; he was their only support--he must live. One
spring and he had caught the beam in his arms; at t