many a hectic person felt the scissors on his
life's thread. John, too, seemed to be suffering under the influence of
the approaching equinox; those who saw him at this time said he looked
particularly disturbed and talked to himself incessantly--something which
he used to do at times, but not very often. At last one evening he did
not come home. It was thought the Baron had sent him somewhere. The
second day he was still not there. On the third his housekeeper grew
anxious. She went to the castle and inquired. "God forbid!" said the
Baron, "I know nothing of him; but, quick!--call the forester and his
son William! If the poor cripple," he added, in agitation, "has fallen
even into a dry pit, he cannot get out again. Who knows if he may not
even have broken one of his distorted limbs! Take the dogs along," he
called to the foresters on their way, "and, first of all, search in the
quarries; look among the stone-quarries," he called out louder.

The foresters returned home after a few hours; no trace had been found.
Herr von S. was restless. "When I think of such a man, forced to lie
like a stone and unable to help himself, I--but he may still be alive; a
man can surely hold out three days without food." He set out himself;
inquiry was made at every house, horns were blown everywhere, alarms
were sent out, and dogs set on the trail--in vain! A child had seen him
sitting at the edge of the forest of Brede, carving a spoon. "But he cut
it right in two," said the little girl. That had happened two days
before. In the afternoon there was another clue. Again a child had seen
him on the other side of the woods, where he had been sitting in the
shrubbery, with his face resting on his knees as though he were asleep.
That was only the day before. It seemed he had kept rambling about the
forest of Brede.

"If only that damned shrubbery weren't so dense! Not a soul can get
through it," said the Baron. The dogs were driven to the place where the
woods had just been cut down; the searching-party blew their horns and
hallooed, but finally returned home, dissatisfied, when they had
convinced themselves that the animals had made a thorough search of the
whole forest. "Don't give up! Don't give up!" begged Frau von S. "It's
better to take a few steps in vain than to leave anything undone." The
Baron was almost as worried as she; his restlessness even drove him to
John's room, although he was sure not to find him there. He had the room
o