r Else; and on second consideration, he thought it better not
to hear Martin thank him again, and therefore turned back.

On the following morning, before break of day, he fastened his
knapsack, took his wooden provision box in his hand, and went away
among the sand-hills towards the coast path. The way was easier to
traverse than the heavy sand road, and moreover shorter; for he
intended to go in the first instance to Zjaltring, by Bowberg, where
the eel breeder lived, to whom he had promised a visit.

The sea lay pure and blue before him, and mussel shells and sea
pebbles, the playthings of his youth, crunched under his feet. While
he was thus marching on, his nose suddenly began to bleed: it was a
trifling incident, but little things can have great significances. A
few large drops of blood fell upon one of his sleeves. He wiped them
off and stopped the bleeding, and it seemed to him as if this had
cleared and lightened his brain. In the sand the sea-eringa was
blooming here and there. He broke off a stalk and stuck it in his hat;
he determined to be merry and of good cheer, for he was going into the
wide world--"a little way outside the door, in front of the hay," as
the young eels had said. "Beware of bad people, who will catch you and
flay you, cut you in two, and put you in the frying-pan!" he repeated
in his mind, and smiled, for he thought he should find his way through
the world--good courage is a strong weapon!

The sun already stood high when he approached the narrow entrance to
Nissum Bay. He looked back, and saw a couple of horsemen gallopping a
long distance behind him, and they were accompanied by other people.
But this concerned him nothing.

The ferry was on the opposite side of the bay. Juergen called to the
ferryman; and when the latter came over with the boat, Juergen stepped
in; but before they had gone half-way across, the men whom he had seen
riding so hastily behind him, hailed the ferryman, and summoned him to
return in the name of the law. Juergen did not understand the reason of
this, but he thought it would be best to turn back, and therefore
himself took an oar and returned. The moment the boat touched the
shore, the men sprang on board, and, before he was aware, they had
bound his hands with a rope.

"Thy wicked deed will cost thee thy life," they said. "It is well that
we caught thee."

He was accused of nothing less than murder. Martin had been found
dead, with a knife thrust throu