CHAPTER XII.

So this was the young man’s secret!  This was the source from which he expected to derive a fortune for his promised bride—­a lottery ticket, purchased before his departure.  And as the “Viking” was going down, he inclosed the ticket in a bottle and threw it into the sea with the last farewell for Hulda.

This time Sylvius Hogg was completely disconcerted.  He looked at the letter, then at the ticket.  He was speechless with dismay.  Besides, what could he say?  How could any one doubt that the “Viking” had gone down with all on board?

While Sylvius Hogg was reading the letter Hulda had nerved herself to listen, but after the concluding words had been read, she fell back unconscious in Joel’s arms, and it became necessary to carry her to her own little chamber, where her mother administered restoratives.  After she recovered consciousness she asked to be left alone for awhile, and she was now kneeling by her bedside, praying for Ole Kamp’s soul.

Dame Hansen returned to the hall.  At first she started toward the professor, as if with the intention of speaking to him, then suddenly turning toward the staircase, she disappeared.

Joel, on returning from his sister’s room, had hastily left the house.  He experienced a feeling of suffocation in the dwelling over which such a dense cloud of misfortune seemed to be hanging.  He longed for the outer air, the fierce blast of the tempest, and spent a part of the night in wandering aimlessly up and down the banks of the Maan.

Sylvius Hogg was therefore left alone.  Stunned by the stroke at first, he soon recovered his wonted energy.  After tramping up and down the hall two or three times, he paused and listened, in the hope that he might hear a summons from the young girl, but disappointed in this, he finally seated himself at the table, and abandoned himself to his thoughts.

“Can it be possible that Hulda is never to see her betrothed again?” he said to himself.  “No; such a misfortune is inconceivable.  Everything that is within me revolts at the thought!  Even admitting that the ‘Viking’ has gone to the bottom of the ocean, what conclusive proof have we of Ole’s death?  I can not believe it.  In all cases of shipwreck time alone can determine whether or not any one has survived the catastrophe.  Yes; I still have my doubts, and I shall continue to have them, even if Hulda and Joel refuse to share them.  If the ‘Viking’ really foundered, how does it happen that no floating fragments of the wreck have been seen at sea—­at least nothing except the bottle in which poor Ole placed his last message, and with it all he had left in the world.”

Sylvius Hogg had the ticket still in his hand, and again he looked at it, and turned it over and held it up between him and the waning light—­this scrap of paper upon which poor Ole had based his hopes of fortune.