ce before to-day, with
one-handed Wenzel of Altenkirchen?"

"Have you found that out already?"

"Yes. Tell me how it happened."

"How it happened? The story is soon told. More than thirteen years ago
Wenzel was my substitute in the army. My father knew him well. He was a
boatman. You can ask Walderjoergli if he wasn't. Our families are the
oldest in the country----"

"But what has that to do with Wenzel?"

"Oh yes! Well! My father gave both Wenzel and his mother a great deal
of money and clothes, and now Wenzel still tries to bleed me."

"Did you not threaten to lay him out cold if he spoke to you before
other people again?"

"Maybe I did, and maybe I didn't. A man sometimes says such a thing
when he's angry; but I did not say it in earnest. Have I all at once
become a man who is ready to kill any one that crosses his path? Am I
an unknown adventurer?"

Landolin waited in vain for an answer, for the judge came back to the
main point and asked:

"Were there any witnesses to the affair with Vetturi?"

"Yes, to be sure! My future son-in-law, Anton Armbruster, whom you
know, and my daughter."

The District Judge desired them both to be called. He was told that
Anton had gone away.

Thoma soon entered, and the judge arose and set a chair for her
opposite to him.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Thoma sat down and folded her hands. She did not look up. "As you are
Landolin's daughter you may refuse to testify," said the judge in a
kindly tone. Thoma wearily raised her head.

"Father! What can I say?"

"What you saw."

She looked steadily into her father's face. She saw that he forced his
eyes to remain open, but the eyelids trembled as though they must close
before her glance. She turned away with a relentless movement of her
head, and laying her clenched hand upon the table, said:

"Your honor----I say--I--I refuse to testify."

Landolin groaned. He knew what was going on in his daughter's mind. She
rose and left the room without a look or a word for any one. They all
gazed after her in silence.

The judge now asked Landolin if any of the servants had seen the
affair. Landolin answered hesitatingly that he did not know; he had not
looked around; but that Tobias and Fidelis were at home. It was with
alarm that he perceived that his fate was in the hands of others.

The judge asked for his son Peter. Landolin shrugged his shoulders.
Nobody cared whether Peter was at home or not