r--Gretchen and Andreas. The last, she
reflected, must be already at some distance. When she saw him, he was
carrying a basket, and he had, no doubt, gone to Seewis, for it was
market-day in that busy village. As to Gretchen, Anna felt puzzled.
Gretchen never went from home; what could she know about time and the
distance from the Rhine valley?

Besides, while the girl stood thinking her sense of responsibility
unfolded, the sense that comes to every rational creature in a moment
that threatens danger to others; and she saw that by going back even to
consult with Gretchen she must lose many precious minutes. There was no
near road to the valley, but it would save a little to keep well behind
the inn on her downward way to Pardisla.

As Anna went along the day cleared again. The phantom-like mists drifted
aside and showed on the opposite mountain's side brilliant green Alps in
the fir-wood that reached almost to the top. The lark overhead sang
louder, and the grasshopper's metallic chirp was incessant under foot.

[Sidenote: Father must be Warned]

Anna's heart became lighter as she hurried on; surely, she thought, she
must reach Malans before her father had begun to climb the mountain. She
knew that he would have left his knapsack at Mayenfeld, and that he must
call there for it on his way home. Unless the landslip was quite recent
it seemed to her possible that some one might be aware of what had
happened, and might give her father warning; but Anna had seen that for
a good way above Malans the upward path looked all right, and it was so
perpendicular that she fancied the destruction of its upper portion
might not have been at once discovered, especially if it had occurred at
night. No, she was obliged to see that it was extremely doubtful whether
her father would receive any warning unless she reached the foot of the
descent before he did.

So she went at her utmost speed down the steep stony track to Pardisla.
New powers seemed to have come to her with the intensity of her
suspense.

* * * * *

George Fasch had every reason to be content with the way in which he had
managed his business at Zurich; and yet, as he travelled back to
Mayenfeld, he was in a desponding mood. All the way to Zurich his sister
had talked about Anna. She said she had tried her utmost with the girl,
and that she grew worse and worse.

"She is reckless and thoroughly unreliable," she said, "and she gets
m