The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1892-06-17
CHAPTER VI

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Herr Gdinsb0rOugh has his diamonds
ICiLt him"
We made a late start the next morn
ing and did not reach the farmhouse be
fore four o'clock | had little Oppor-
tunity of speaking to Kate on the way;
in fact, the presence of SluTk, who sat
on the box of the vehicle and once i'll
awhile threw a glance at us over his
shoulder, irritated me to such degree
that more tender sentiments We're toIu-
porarily pushed into the background
Kate herself, though she attempted to
appear cheerful, betrayed signs OF IN
ward anxiety and nervousness, while
Mr.. Birchmore conversed with yoIu-
bility and discursiveness greater than
had ever remarked in him before.
The farmhouse stood quite alone on
an unfrequented by-road, in little angle
of the hills. 1t was not exactly plctur-
esque building, with its four walls Gov
cred with rough plaster and pierced
with dozens of small windows, and It's
enormous red tiled roof, with those
quaint, narrow apertures, like half open
ed eyes, disclosing a single pane Of glass,
which do duty as dCuuars ltstood flush
with the road, as German houses are
fond of doing; but behind was large
inclosed farmyard, roughly paved with
round stones and well walled in. The
front door, though rather pretcutlously
painted and ornamented with some re-
ligious versicle or other written upon
the Intel, was not used as Il means Of
entrance or exit.
1t was, as | afterward discovered, not
only locked and bolted, but actually
screwed up on the inside, and the only
way of getting into the house was by a
side door opening into the courtyard.
AS the courtyard itself was provided
with n heavy gate, you will see that the
farmhouse, close to the road though 1t
was, was by no means so easy OF lnSress
or egress rs it appeared-supposinS, OF
course, that it was the humOr Of the in
mates to declare a state of siege. l men
ton these particulars merely by the way,
they are common to three houses out OF
five in this region.
The Birchmores' luggage had, it ap-
peared, already been carried over from
the hotel; but man in rough PEASANTS
costume, who announced himself rs the
master of the house, now came out to
take charge of my trunk | was, or
fancied myself (as you may have
noticed), a quick judge of faces, and
this peasants face failed to commend
itself to me. 1t was at once heavy and
gloomy, while a scar at one corner Of
his mouth caused that feature to twist
itself into a perfunctory grimGce, gro
tesquely at variance with his normal ex-
preston. In person he was much above
the common size, and to judge by the
ease with which he slung his heavy
trunk over his shoulder, he Riust- have
- been as strong as August der Starke
himself, whose brazen statue domlneers
over the market place in Dresden.
"Guten morgen, Herr RUDOLPH said
Slurk, hailing this giant affably. The
two seemed to be on some sort of terms
of comradeship, having perhaps struck
MP an acquaintance during the previous
negotiations for lodgings. 1 must say
they looked to me to be u not i'll matched
pair.
We alighted and were welcomed in
with surly courtesy by Herr Rudolph.
Kate, confessing to headache, went at
once to her room, whence she did not
again emerge; SlBrk disappeared into
Mr.. Birchmore presently went out for Il
stroll before dinner, and |, finding my
self thrown temporarily on my own
resources, decided to make virtue of
my loneliness by writing some letters
which had been long owing. l accord
ngly CROPPED my way up the darbsOme
stone staircase and so along an eccentric
passage to my room.
1 did not know then nor could | even
now accurately describe the arrange
ment of rooms IN that farmhouse. There
were at least three separate passages.
not running ut right angles to one an
other, but seeming to wander about II
regularly, now and then turning awk-
ward corners, descending or ascending
short flights of steps or eddying into a
little cul de sac, with perhaps only a
closet door at the end Of it. The conse-
quence was it was nearly impossible to
say whose room adjoined whose. 1t
might be a long distance from one to
another measured along the passage,
and yet they might actually be separated
Only by the thickness of Il wall. Where
the farmer and his family slept know
not, but l have reason to believe that all
our party, including Slurk, were accom-
modated upon the same floor.
On opening the door of my room
found some one already there. This per
son was comely young woman, the
farmers daughter evidently, busy in the
benevolent occupation of putting things
III order She had moved my trunk be
meath the window, she had pat fresh
water in the ever. she had Strengthened
out the slips of drugget on the rough
board floor, she had placed some flowers
III the window, and she was now en-
gagged in tuclllng a clean sheet on the
bed. | said she was comely; on second
look she was better than that. She was
positively pretty, with the innocent
blond prettiHess of some German peas
ant girls.
Her fair hair, smOothed compactly
over her small head and wound up in a
funny little pug behind, possessed faint
golden lustcr; her eyes were Of as pure
and serene blue as any ever looked
upon; her smooth checks, slightly
Drowned by much sunshine which had
rested on theta, We're tiuged with health
full bloom; her mouth might have been
smaller, but the full lips We're well
shaped and there We're white, even teeth
behind them. Her figure, like that of
most Saxon peasant girls of her age, was
robust and vigorous; she wore a simple
bodice and skirt, and her feet and legs
were bare. Altogether, thought her q