“You are looking over your room,” said Spencer. “Parbleu! it is none of the biggest or grandest, not quite like the rooms in the castle.  We are now in Hugh Lupus’s tower, a place as old as the mountain itself, going as far back as the days of Charlemagne.  In those days, as you see, people had not yet learned to build arches high, round, or pointed.  They worked right into the rock.”

“Well, for all that, you have put me in strange lodgings.”

“Don’t be mistaken, Fritz; it is the place of honour.  It is here that the count put all his most distinguished friends.  Mind that:  Hugh Lupus’s tower is the most honourable accommodation we have.”

“And who was Hugh Lupus?”

“Why, Hugh the Wolf, to be sure.  He was the head of the family of Nideck, a rough-and-ready warrior, I can tell you.  He came to settle up here with a score of horsemen and halberdiers of his following.  They climbed up this rock—­the highest rock amongst these mountains.  You will see this to-morrow.  They constructed this tower, and proclaimed, ’Now we are the masters!  Woe befall the miserable wretches who shall pass without paying toll to us!  We will tear the wool off their backs, and their hide too, if need be.  From this watch-tower we shall command a view of the far distance all round.  The passes of the Rhethal, of Steinbach, Koche Plate, and of the whole line of the Black Forest are under our eye.  Let the Jew pedlars and the dealers beware!’ And the noble fellows did what they promised.  Hugh the Wolf was at their head.  Knapwurst told me all about it sitting up one night.”

“Who is Knapwurst?”

“That little humpback who opened the gate for us.  He is an odd fellow, Fritz, and almost lives in the library.”

“So you have a man of learning at Nideck?”

“Yes, we have, the rascal!  Instead of confining himself to the porter’s lodge, his proper place, all the day over he is amongst the dusty books and parchments belonging to the family.  He comes and goes along the shelves of the library just like a big cat.  Knapwurst knows our story better than we know it ourselves.  He would tell you the longest tales, Fritz, if you would only let him.  He calls them chronicles—­ha, ha!”

And Sperver, with the wine mounting a little into his head, began to laugh, he could hardly say why.

“So then, Gideon, you call this tower, Hugh’s tower the Hugh Lupus tower?”

“Haven’t I told you so already?  What are you so astonished at?”

“Nothing particular.”

“But you are.  I can see it in your face.  You are thinking of something strange.  What is it?”