“There’s been something going on that you ought to know about,” he continued.  “Don’t think that I go to the Rehbock every evening, by any means!  I heard there was some strange news, and so I went there to-night to hear it, and it was well worth while, I can tell you.  The red fellow is found out!  The cattle-dealer accused him of having stolen his money bag.  The man denied it; there was a long investigation, and at last they found out that and a great many other things against him.  He turns out to be a regular rascal.  And when all this had been proved against him, he turned round and accused another man, who, he said, was really at the bottom of everything; but no one knows yet who it is.  Don’t run so fast; I can’t keep up with you.  Now you’re out of it all right, Dietrich; but I suppose you know that they tried to make out that you took the money, and that was why you ran away.  But I never believed it; I never did, on my honor.  Do stand still; it’s all right now, and you needn’t run away any more.”

“I’m not going to run away, Blasi, and I thank you for bringing me this good news.  But it’s not all right you know, on account of Marx.”

“Marx!” cried Blasi, “what of Marx! it doesn’t hurt a man to get a good beating.  Marx is as lively as you or I, and still drinks more than enough to quench his thirst, when he can get it.”

Dietrich stood still now, and drew a long breath.  “Is that true, Blasi, really true?  You wouldn’t say it if it were not true?  She wrote me that there was nothing to fear; but I didn’t understand it.  And I can’t quite understand now, Jost wrote me that Marx was dead, and that I had better go away as far as I possibly could, because they were searching for me, high and low.  I can’t make it out.  But I must go now for the doctor.  Come and see me to-morrow, Blasi; and we will have a good talk.  Now good-night.”

Dietrich shook his old comrade by the hand and ran off.  But Blasi could not so easily smother all the wonderful things he had to tell, and he called out at the top of his lungs,

“You don’t know much of anything yet!  I spend the whole day at your house; it’s you that will have to come to me.  I am working at your trade; you ought to see! there’s many a fellow that would be glad to do as well as I do!”

But Dietrich had disappeared.  It was past midnight, before he reached the doctor’s house, and he knocked a good many times in vain.  At last a maid came down and opened the door, saying as she did so,

“What a plague it is, that everything always comes at once!  He has been called out once to-night, and has hardly got to bed again.  It never rains but it pours!”

“I hope he will be so good as to come now;” said Dietrich, “it is very important or I would not ask him.”

The maid knocked at the chamber door.  It was some time before the doctor’s voice answered from within, “Who’s there?”

“Dietrich from Tannenegg,” said the servant.