We
wanted to get away? He was not surprised. _What had we come for?_ No one
ever came here. Were we Americans! Staying at the "Katze"! Good heavens!
"A rough place." "I should rather think so."

And this last piece of information fairly overcame him. He evidently
felt he must come to the rescue of these poor Babes in the wood.

"Come up when the mail passes from Seeberg this evening at seven, and I
will see what I can do with the conductor. If he _happens_ to have no
passengers to-morrow, he _may_ stretch a point and take you in. No one
will be the wiser."

"Oh, thanks, thanks," I cried. "Of course I will pay anything he likes
to ask."

"No need for that. He is a _braver Mann_, and will not cheat you."

"We shall be here at seven, then. I would rather have started to walk
than stayed here indefinitely."

"Not _to-day_ anyway. We shall have a storm," he said, looking up to the
sky. "Adieu. _Auf Wiedersehen!_"

"I wish we had not to stay another night here," I said. "Still,
to-morrow morning will soon come."

We spent the day as best we could. There was literally nothing to see,
nowhere to go, except back into the forest whence we had come. Nor dared
we go far, for the day grew more and more sultry; the strange, ominous
silence that precedes a storm came on, adding to our feelings of
restlessness and depression. And by about two o'clock, having ventured
out again after "dinner," we were driven in by the first great drops.
Huddled together in our cheerless little room we watched the breaking
loose of the storm demons. I am not affected by thunder and lightning,
nor do I dread them. But what a storm that was! Thunder, lightning,
howling wind, and rain like no rain I had ever seen before, all mingled
together. An hour after it began, a cart, standing high and dry in
the steep village street, was hidden by water to above the top of the
wheels--a little more and it would have floated like a boat. But by
about five, things calmed down; the few stupid-looking peasants came out
of their houses, and gazed about them as if to see what damage had been
done. Perhaps it was not much after all--they seemed to take it quietly
enough; and by six all special signs of disturbance had disappeared--the
torrents melted away as if by magic. Only a strange, heavy mist began to
rise, enveloping everything, so that we could hardly believe the evening
was yet so early. I looked at my watch.

"Half-past six. We must, mist or no mist, go