counted on his coming, though
belated. The shock-headed man, clattering over the rounded stones in
wooden shoes, made to fit by the insertion of straw around his naked
feet, no sooner heard him name Herr Daniels as the one expecting him,
than he bade him welcome in a cordial tone which his surly face had not
presaged.

"I suppose he is asleep," he said, "but he left word that he was to be
aroused at any hour on your coming. I am not allowed within doors in my
stable dress," he added, "but you will have no trouble in finding the
rooms. It is that one where the candle burns, one floor above, numbers
11, 12 and 13--the number is unlucky for a Christian, but that does not
matter for the likes of them!--and a lamp burns at the turn of the
stairs. The back door is on the latch."

Claudius, with the satisfaction of having anchored in the harbor,
crossed the yard and entered the house. He was closing the door behind
him when he heard a heavy tread at the street gate where he had come in.
and the dog began to growl. The ostler caught it by the collar as it
made a bound, and cried out:

"Who is there?"

The schutzman, who had dismounted, prudently held the door close, with
one hand, to prevent the dog gliding through, while he showed his sword
drawn in the other, and answered with affected joviality:

"What, Karlchen, am I not known by you better than by your pagan of a
hound? But catch me putting silly questions to my boon-companion, my
oldest friend! It is not in here that I saw a suspicious shadow creep,
eh?"

"By my faith!" replied the groom, laughing heartily, "it may have been a
shadow--but flesh-and-blood is what my true Ogre is waiting for! We are
up betimes, worthy Hornitz, and we have neither had our breakfast. What
has put you on the alert?"

"A general order! There was a riot at the great music hall of the
Freyers Brothers--plague on it! What art they have in brewing beer that
leaves a pleasant memory! and we have orders to overhaul every
suspicious character in the streets, while none can get out of the town.
It appears that some monstrous criminal is at large! Oh, for the reward,
that would buy me a little cottage on the Friedplatz road with beer
unstinted!"

"Pooh! as usual, you gentlemen of the nightwatch are badly informed,"
grumbled the ostler, pushing the dog into a corner. "I know what it was,
for one of the theatrical players is a lady lodger of ours. She was
unfairly supplanted by some insignific