does this mean?" I exclaimed
in surprise, and ran into the house, and through the silent corridors,
to the room. But when I opened the door my heart stood still with
dismay; the room was perfectly empty; not a coat, not a hat, not a
boot, anywhere. Only the zither upon which Herr Guido had played was
hanging on the wall, and on the table in the centre of the room lay
a purse full of money, with a card attached to it. I took it to
the window, and could scarcely trust my eyes when I read, in large
letters, "For the Herr Receiver!"

But what good could it all do me if I could not find my dear, merry
masters again? I thrust the purse into my deep coat-pocket, where it
plumped down as into a well and almost pulled me over backward. Then I
rushed out, and made a great noise, and waked up all the maids and men
in the house. They could not imagine what was the matter, and thought
I must have gone crazy. But they were not a little amazed when they
saw the empty nest. No one knew anything of my masters. One maid
only had observed--so far as I could make out from her signs and
gesticulations--that Herr Guido, when he was singing on the balcony on
the previous evening, had suddenly screamed aloud, and had then rushed
back into the room to the other gentleman. And once, when she waked
in the night afterward, she had heard the tramp of a horse. She peeped
out of the little window of her room, and saw the crooked Signor, who
had talked so much to me, on a white horse, galloping so furiously
across the field in the moonlight that he bounced high up from his
saddle; and the maid crossed herself, for he looked like a ghost
riding upon a three-legged horse. I did not know what in the world to
do.

Meanwhile, however, our carriage was standing before the door ready to
start, and the impatient postilion blew his horn fit to burst, for he
had to be at the next station at a certain hour, because everything
had been ordered with great exactitude in the way of changing horses.
I ran once more through all the house, calling the painters, but no
one made answer; the inn-people stared at me, the postilion cursed,
the horses neighed, and, at last, completely dazed, I sprang into the
carriage, the hostler shut the door behind me, the postilion cracked
his whip, and away I went into the wide world.

CHAPTER V

We drove on now over hill and dale, day and night. I had no time for
reflection, for wherever we arrived the horses were standing