every passer-by,
and whispered to them and nodded and confided things to them in
secret. "But never a word I've said," so she charged them every time.
Oline went down to the village, too, more than once. And now there
were rumours and talk of things about the place, ay, drifting like a
fog, settling on faces and getting into ears; even the children going
to school at Breidablik began nodding secrets among themselves. And at
last the Lensmand had to take it up; had to bestir himself and report
it, and ask for instructions. Then he came up with a book to write
in and an assistant to help him; came up to Maaneland one day and
investigated things and wrote things down, and went back again. But
three weeks after, he came up once more, investigating and writing
down again, and this time, he opened a little green mound by the
stream, and took out the body of a child. Oline was an invaluable help
to him; and in return he had to answer a host of questions she put.
Among other things, he said yes, it might perhaps come to having Axel
arrested too. At that, Oline clasped her hands in dismay at all the
wickedness she had got mixed up with here, and only wished she were
out of the place, far away from it all. "But the girl," she whispered,
"what about Barbro herself?"

"The girl Barbro," said the Lensmand, "she's under arrest now in
Bergen. The law must take its course," said he. And he took the little
body and went back again to the village....

Little wonder, then, that Axel Stroem was anxious. He had spoken out to
the Lensmand and denied nothing; he was in part responsible for the
coming of the child at all, and in addition, he had dug a grave for
it. And now he was asking Geissler what he had better do next. Would
he have to go in to the town, to a new and worse examination, and be
tortured there?

Geissler was not the man he had been--no; and the long story had
wearied him, he seemed duller now, whatever might be the cause. He was
not the bright and confident soul he had been that morning. He looked
at his watch, got up, and said:

"This'll want thinking over. I'll go into it thoroughly and let you
know before I leave."

And Geissler went off.

He came back to Sellanraa that evening, had a little supper, and went
to bed. Slept till late next morning, slept, rested thoroughly; he was
tired, no doubt, after his meeting with the Swedish mine-owners. Not
till two days after did he make ready to leave. He was his lordly sel