uire whether you know anything of the lady in the blue
riding-habit who was here?" said the intendant in the proper dialect.

"Ho, ho!" cried Thomas, "how finely he talks; but I can understand
priest German, and judge's German, too. I've had enough to do with
those people already. But you'd better not interfere"; and then,
turning to Bruno, he added: "Let us two talk together, alone. Now
listen, brother; this is what we'll do: You needn't make a count of me;
all you need do is to give me servants and horses, and enough money and
chamois and deer, and you'll soon see how clever and strong and hearty
I am. Would you like to wrestle with me? or come out into the woods,
and I'll show you that I can shoot better than you can. Now, all you
need do is to give me either your sister's inheritance or my sister's,
and you'll see we'll be a couple of merry brothers!"

Bruno hardly knew whether he was dreaming or awake. Some of the
insolent fellow's words were clear enough to him, others he could not
understand. He motioned the intendant to withdraw, and then said in a
gentle voice:

"Thomas, I know you now; sit down."

Thomas seated himself on the bench, and, raising the brandy jug which
he had bought with the money received for the hat, said:

"Won't you drink something?"

Bruno declining, Thomas took a long draught.

The intendant said to Bruno, in French, that there was no information
to be obtained from that quarter, and that he had secretly charged the
guide to hold fast to the wild fellow, so that, unmolested, they might
return to the valley.

"What sort of gibberish is the simpleton talking, there?" cried Thomas,
preparing to rush at the intendant. At the same moment, the guide threw
himself on Thomas, and held him fast, while the two gentlemen left the
hut and hurried down the mountain.

It was not until the guide again came up with them, that they paused,
and Bruno ventured to draw a long breath. The guide now told them how
Thomas had raged, and how he had called out for the gun which he
had hidden in the wood, and that he had said he must shoot his
brother-in-law.

"The best thing the fellow could do," said the guide, "would be to
drink himself to death, so as to save himself from being hanged."

After some time, Bruno ventured to ask the intendant, in a whisper,
whether they had not proceeded far enough with their investigation, and
whether it was not best to return at once.

The intendant was silent. Brun