secuted to death by my son. I suffer----"

A devilish laugh interrupted him. The dog snuffed around the old woman.
Landolin called him away, and continued:

"I would like to do something for you."

"Then hang yourself!" cried Cushion-Kate. Hastening to her bundle of
twigs, she unfastened the string.

"There, there you have it! Hang yourself on the tree there. That's the
only thing you can do for me. I want to see you hanging."

Landolin mounted his horse again, and rode away. He did not look
around. He did not see how Cushion-Kate, with the cord in her hand,
hastened after him through the forest.

Landolin reached the valley. The stream has risen above its bed, but
there is the bridge, and just across is Anton's saw-mill.

The horse stepped gayly into the water that scarcely reached its knee.
The dog waded by its side, and often looked up at his master, as though
begging him to turn back. But Landolin rode on and on, and did not look
around when it splashed so strangely behind him. He reached the bridge
over which the water was already rushing. Just then something like a
noose wound itself about his neck. He looked round. Cushion-Kate was
clinging beside him to the horse. A struggle, a wrench, splash! and
Cushion-Kate's red kerchief appeared for a moment; then nothing more
was to be seen. Only the dog swam through the roaring waters, down to
the mill, and there sprang on land.

CHAPTER LXX.

The judge's wife and her brother were just about entering their
carriage to return home, when a messenger came from Anton to say that
Thoma and Peter must come immediately to the mill. The messenger told
them that Anton had rescued the ex-bailiff from the water with great
danger to his own life, and that the horse was drowned.

"But my father! Is he alive?" asked Thoma.

The messenger said that when he left they were trying to restore him,
and he seemed to show signs of life.

The carriage was quickly turned round, for her guests wished to
accompany Thoma. Word was sent to the field for Peter to follow at
once.

They drove down into the valley as quickly as the roads, torn and
damaged by the water, would allow. In the stream was a boat, and Anton
called from it:

"He is alive!"

The boat had to be taken far up the stream, in order that the current
might drive it to the other shore. Floating pieces of rafts and forest
trees with roots and branches made the journey across long a