. He was an obstinate,
insignificant boy.

Nevertheless, though no one knew it, at this hour Peter had become an
important personage.

No one dreamed that the little sliding window, between the living-room
and the kitchen, was half-open, and that Peter lurked behind it. When
he heard his father's answer, he quickly pulled off his boots, sprang
noiselessly down the steps to the barn where Tobias was, and said:

"We now know how it happened. The stone did not hit Vetturi. Do you
hear? And you too?" turning to the hostler Fidelis. Tobias nodded
understandingly. Fidelis, on the other hand, made no answer.

There was no time to say anything more, for the two servants were
called into the house. Before Tobias left the yard he threw a stone
down near the gate.

Tobias was first reprimanded for having swept away the marks of blood.
He took it all quietly, and said, in a firm voice, that he had plainly
seen that Vetturi, who was always shaky, had not been hit by the stone,
but had fallen down himself on the paving-stones. When the head-servant
began speaking, Landolin had closed his eyes, but he now looked up
triumphantly. His elbow rested on the chair; he held his hand over his
mouth, and pressed his lips tightly together when Tobias concluded
with:

"The stone that Vetturi threw, lies down there yet, scarcely a step
from where the master stood."

Landolin raised himself to his full height. "That's the thing!
Self-defense! I must justify myself on that ground." Landolin grasped
the arm of the chair, as a drowning man, battling with the waves,
grasps the rope thrown out to save him; and, just so, his soul clung to
the thought of self-defense.

Fidelis said quite as positively that he had seen his master pick up a
paving-stone with both hands, lean back, draw a long breath, and throw
it. It had struck Vetturi on the head, and he had not seen Vetturi
throw anything.

Landolin started up with an angry exclamation. He was told to be
silent. The judge arose and said, evidently with forced calmness, that
he was sorry, but, in order to prevent any tampering with the
witnesses, he was compelled to place Landolin in confinement for the
present.

The chair moved violently, and Landolin cried:

"Your honor, I am Landolin of Reutershoefen; this is my house; out there
are my fields, my meadows, my forests. I am no adventurer, and I
sha'n't run away for a beggar who is nothing to me."

The judge shrugged his shoulders, and sa