gave promise of another warm day, and the
air, of crystalline clearness, was inspiring to breathe. To Greusel's
mind, tinged with religious feeling, the situation in which he found
himself seemed like a section of the Garden of Eden. The stream, which
the night before had been to his superstitious mind a thing of terror,
was this morning a placid, smiling, rippling brook that a man might
without effort leap across.

He rubbed his eyes in amazement, thinking the mists of sleep must be
responsible for this magic transformation, until he remembered the
distant thunderstorm of the night before among the eastern mountains,
and surmised that a heavy rainfall had deluged these speedily drained
peaks and valleys.

"What a blessed thing," he said to himself fervently, "is the
ever-recurring morning. How it clears away the errors and the passions
of darkness! It is as if God desired to give man repeated opportunities
of reform, and of encouragement. How sane everything seems now, as
compared with the turbulence of the sulphurous night."

As he rose he became aware of an unaccustomed weight by his side, and
putting down his hand was astonished to encounter a bag evidently filled
with coin. It had been tied by its deerskin thong to his belt, just as
was his own empty wallet. He sat down again, drew it round to the front
of him, and unfastened it. Pouring out the gold, he found that the
wallet contained a hundred and fifteen thalers, mostly in gold, with the
addition of a few silver coins. At once it occurred to him that these
were Roland's sixty thalers, his own thirty, and Ebearhard's
twenty-five. For some reason, probably fearing the men would suspect the
ruse practiced on them the night before, Roland had made him treasurer
of the company. But why should he have done it surreptitiously?

Readjusting the leathern sack, he again rose to his feet, but now cast
his cloak about him, thus concealing the purse. Ebearhard lay sound
asleep near him. Farther away the eighteen remaining members of the
company were huddled closely together, as if they had gone to rest in a
room too small for them, although the whole country was theirs from
which to choose sleeping quarters.

Remembering how the brook had decreased in size, and was now running
clear and pellucid, he feared that the bag of stones Roland had so
dramatically flung into it might be plainly visible. He determined to
rouse his commander, and seek the bag for some distance do