Landolin Part 19

"They were all invited, but they seem to have slipped into the ground and vanished."

The first to arrive was Landolin's lawyer. He seemed far from being elated with his victory; and in Landolin's manner toward him there was by no means the same dependence and helplessness as before. Then Landolin had treated him as a very sick man does his physician; every word and every glance were welcomed as though fraught with healing. Now Landolin was an ungrateful convalescent, who has come to the conclusion that he has not been sick at all; or, at any rate, that not the physician, but his own good const.i.tution has helped him through.

"You are right," said his counsel, "you should have been a lawyer. Your last words turned the scale. It was a master stroke."

Landolin accepted this praise as his due, and made no reply.

"Call Anton! Where is Anton?" said he, turning to his son.

"When I was sending the dispatch I met him at the depot. He went home on the freight train, which usually takes no pa.s.sengers; but the conductor is an old comrade of his, and smuggled him on board."

Landolin whistled, and walked hastily around the table, on which they were just placing the wine-bottles.

"Landlord, bring in the supper. Herr Procurator, take this chair beside me. So, this is a different way of sitting down together. I invited all the jurymen,--all. I don't want to know who said guilty, or who said not guilty. I don't want to have an enemy in the world. If they don't come--all right. I've shown how I feel, and that's enough. Landlord, let the witnesses come in, and anybody else that's there. Be sure and call Tobias."

Tobias soon appeared. To be sure he had just eaten in the hostler's room; but he wiped his mouth, as though he would say, "If it's necessary I'll do it again." So he sat down next to Peter, and fell bravely to work.

The so-called common people who had testified now came in. This was, to be sure, no company for Landolin, but he could not do less than give the poor fellows a good bite and a good drink. He asked what the witness fee was, and when he heard how small it was, he said he would like to double it, but he dared not, lest it should be said that he had tried to bribe them. By this speech he sought to ingratiate himself with these people at no expense to himself.

Tobias nudged Peter with his elbow, and laughed and drank. Peter cast a look at him as though he would like to tear him to pieces, then quickly controlled himself and joined in the laugh. His face wore the expression of a young fox who has just caught his first hare, and is feasting upon it.

Among the guests were some who had been Landolin's companions when he was young; and they strove to divert him by reminding him of his wild, youthful pranks. Landolin laughed and drank immoderately. The lawyer did not find it congenial, so he slipped quietly away. Landolin's eyes often fell upon the empty chair at his side, but he looked quickly away. Suddenly he called out, "Take away that empty chair! Who the devil is going to sit there? Take it away! Away with it!" He jumped up and overturned it with such force that all the four legs were broken.

"You oughtn't to do that father. Be quiet!" whispered Peter, sternly, and roughly grasped his father's arm.

"Let go! I'm all right," said Landolin, quieting down. "Come, Tobias, come with me! Indeed I have not drunk too much to-day, but I have gone through so much that its almost upset me. Here, Tobias, let me lean a little on you. Good night to you all. I hope you will get home all right. I shall soon follow you."

He went up to his room with Tobias, and as soon as he got there he caught tight hold of Tobias' arms and cried:

"Be still! I won't hurt you. Not you! You haven't deserved it. Do you know what I long for? Do you know what I wish?"

"How can I know it?"

"I'd like to have one of 'em between my thumb and finger, like this, so--Hutadi! I'd like to snap and crack his arms and legs. I'd like best to get at t.i.tus--or all of the six--they ought to have been unanimous--the cursed--"

"Let me go, master," begged Tobias, for the grip of his hand was far from gentle; "and I advise you to keep quieter. You can say anything you like to me. What we two have got through together, can't be undone."

The situation dawned upon Landolin. He, the farmer, was reproved by his own servant.

"All right, all right," he muttered and soon fell sound asleep.

CHAPTER x.x.xVII.

It was almost noon when Landolin awoke. He prepared for his journey home, and paid his bill. It was very evident that the landlord had cheated him. He was greatly vexed at being taken in by this plausible fellow, but he did not want an open quarrel. The thought that, for some time to come, he must allow himself to be cheated without daring to say anything, worried him more than the loss of his money. He now wished to return home immediately, and enter the village in triumph; but Peter put off going until near evening; for he did not want his father to reach home until after dark; and when Landolin swore at the unnecessary delays, Peter said, coolly and meaningly:

"Father, you will have to give up fussing and spluttering so. I should think you would have learned, by this time, to keep quiet and be patient. Yes, you may well stare at me. I am no longer the simple Peter, over whose head you looked, as though he didn't exist. I am here, and you and I have no secrets from one another. Self-defense is a nice thing, but--well I guess you understand me. Of course I have great respect for you. You drove the cart well, and Tobias and I pushed at the hind-wheels. The cart is out of the rut, and now we'll wash our hands."

Landolin looked at his son as though another man were standing before him. Peter noticed it, and continued:

"Yes, father, I've found out what the mainspring of the world is; and I know that it's all one what a man does. He can do what he likes, if he only keeps other people from knowing it. Am I right, or not?"

Landolin was so astonished that he could not utter a word. Who dare speak to him in such a way? Can it be Peter! But something still worse followed; for Peter began again:

"Now, see here, father; before we go home we'd better have matters settled. You are the farmer; you are the master. And before the world you may appear as you always have; but at home, in house and field, only my word must be obeyed. You may be sure that you shall want for nothing."

"Where is Tobias?" asked Landolin, gnas.h.i.+ng his teeth.

"You needn't halloo so; I'm not deaf. I sent Tobias home before us; and I might as well tell you at once, that I shall dismiss him soon. He knows too much, and puts on too many airs. Moreover, I intend to send away all of the servants. I'm going to lay a new foundation."

Landolin kept silent, but smiled. He was incensed at Peter's impertinence, yet he could not repress his delight that his son had become so fearless and resolute.

"I could almost be proud of you, you have changed so," he said, at length. And Peter cried exultingly:

"That's right. You shall see that I'll do everything right; and that I'll do the right thing by you. I find that we've been losing a big pile of money in speculation, but that's past and done with, and I'll say nothing more about it."

Landolin kept his wrath down, and thought: "Just wait till we get home, then I'll talk to you differently."

Father and son spoke not a word after this. A wagon was waiting at the depot in the city; and Landolin asked his wife, who with tears in her eyes came to meet him: "Where is Thoma?" He was told that she would not come.

Landolin thought to himself: "I am acquitted, but my children----. My son wants to depose me, and my daughter will not even come to meet me."

In the meadow near the station was an unfinished platform, and though it was twilight, the men were still hammering busily.

"What are they doing?" asked Landolin; and before an answer could be given, he continued: "I remember, when I was a child, that a scaffold was built there, and a man beheaded on it. Beheading is not the worst thing in the world."

"Oh! husband!" replied his wife. "What strange thoughts! Peter, don't you know what they are doing?"

"Certainly; certainly. Next Sunday the soldiers have their celebration."

As the wagon drove past the garden of the Sword inn, a number of ladies and gentlemen were looking down from the veranda. Landolin raised his hat and bowed, but no one returned the salutation; and, for the first time in his life, he tasted the bitter experience of stretching out his hand in greeting, and of finding no hand ready to take it.

CHAPTER x.x.xVIII.

No one had returned Landolin's greeting from the veranda of the inn. To be sure the judge's wife, who sat near the railing, looked an acknowledgment, but that could not be seen at the distance. More she dared not do, for they were having a full meeting of the members of the "Casino," a society or a.s.sociation of the people of rank in the city, which met the first Wednesday after each full moon. Several members from a distance were there; the Catholic priest; and the only Protestant pastor of the district, with his wife.

The conversation naturally turned upon the monstrous verdict of the previous day. The corporation-attorney said that he was glad he had declined to defend the case. He could well imagine the surprise of Landolin's counsel when his client was acquitted. Of course, in such cases, a lawyer feels bound to make use of all possible dialectic arts and strategies, but still, when successful, he must feel the recoil of the gun.

The school-teacher, whom but few knew to be the editor of the weekly paper, _The Forest Messenger_, complained in a disheartened tone that this verdict of the overbearing farmers would necessarily intensify the hate existing between the different cla.s.ses; for the poor man felt that he had no rights. It was high time that the choice of jurymen should no longer depend upon the length of a man's tax-list.

The attorney coincided with him, but went even farther, and a.s.serted that it was an old prejudice of liberalism, that the ordinary mind could render a just verdict.