The Alpine Fay Part 28

"Yes, she is the gayest of all," Gronau a.s.sented. "That cure of yours is almost a miracle, Herr Doctor. What a poor, pining little plant she was, and now she is as fresh and blooming as a rose! Baroness Thurgau has grown grave and silent; and as for the two men,--one of them is always at the boiling-point, and is as jealous as a Turk, while the other is a perfect icicle, and they look at each other as if they would like to fly at each other's throats. What affectionate relatives they will be!"

Benno suppressed a sigh; the mute hostility between Wolfgang and Waltenberg, which was barely concealed beneath the forms of conventional courtesy, had not escaped him, but he said nothing.

"I am really sorry for Herr Waltenberg," Veit began again. "He cannot live without a sight of his betrothed every twenty-four hours, and he drives over from Heilborn daily. She, on the contrary, seems to have taken the famous mountain divinity for her model: she sits enthroned like the Alpine Sprite, and allows herself to be wors.h.i.+pped, while she remains entirely unmoved. Absolutely, doctor, you are the only sensible being among them all. You have no thoughts of matrimony,--hold fast to that!"

"I certainly am not thinking of it, but of something else, which will be scarcely less of a surprise to you,--of going away. Very unexpectedly a lucrative position has been offered me."

"Bravo! Accept it at once!"

"I certainly must."

Gronau burst into a laugh: "With what a long face you say that! I verily believe it goes to your heart to leave these honest Obersteiners who have been wearing you out for five years, to requite you with only a 'G.o.d reward you!' Just like my dear old Benno! He never would have died a poor man if he had understood the world and human nature. There he sat for years bothering over an idea which ought to have made his fortune, but he never knew how to push his claims, and timid requests and modest applications do no good with great capitalists and lords of finance. Finally others got before him with his invention, which was in the air, as it were, when they began to build mountain-railways, but nevertheless he was the first to devise the system of mountain-locomotives; all the later inventions are based upon his principle."

"My father?" Benno asked, with a puzzled air. "You are mistaken; it is the Nordheim system upon which the locomotives of to-day are constructed."

"I beg pardon: 'tis the Reinsfeld method," Gronau maintained.

"You are mistaken, I a.s.sure you. Wolf told me himself that his future father-in-law laid the foundation of his fortunes by the sale of his method of constructing mountain-locomotives. It was purchased and used by the first mountain-railways. Afterwards, of course, all kinds of improvements were added, but the inventor made a goodly profit; they paid him a very large price for the patent."

"Paid whom? Nordheim?" Veit shouted.

"The president,--certainly."

"And the engineer-in-chief told you this?"

"He did; we were talking of it a little while ago. Moreover, the thing is well known; any engineer can tell you so."

Gronau suddenly sprang up and approached the young physician. "Doctor,"

he said, slowly and emphatically, "this is either a wretched mistake or a scoundrelly trick!"

"Scoundrelly trick?" Benno repeated, startled. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, or rather I know, that this invention was your father's, and Nordheim knows it as well as I do. If he has given it out for his own----"

"In heaven's name, you would not call----"

"The highly-respected president a scoundrel? Well, that remains to be seen. It was, of course, possible for a stranger to have hit upon the same invention,--every engineer was occupied with the problem at the time,--but Nordheim had his friend's completed plan in his possession, studied it thoroughly, praised and admired it; there is no possibility of his having happened upon the idea for himself. We must sift the matter. Consider, Benno, do you really know nothing of the cause of the estrangement of which you have told me?"

"Nothing at all. I have just told Wolfgang so; he asked me the same question."

"The engineer-in-chief? What made him do that?"

"He thought he saw the president's hand in the offer that has just been made me, and he surmised--but no, no! Not a word more of such a shameful suspicion. It is impossible----"

"Much seems impossible to you, doctor; you have preserved the heart of a child," Veit said, gravely. "But when a man has seen as much of men as I have, he comes to disbelieve in such impossibilities. You are sure that Nordheim took out a patent for the mountain-locomotive?"

"Certainly; of that fact I am sure."

"Then he is a thief!" Gronau exclaimed, in a burst of indignation,--"a trebly disgraced thief, for he robbed his friend!"

"Hush, hus.h.!.+" Benno interposed, but fruitlessly: Veit went on to prove his accusation.

"Tell me why your father, who was loyalty itself to his friends, should have broken with the one who was nearest to him? Why did Nordheim, if he were possessed of so inventive a genius, never achieve more than one invention? and why did he entirely abandon engineering shortly afterwards? Can you answer these questions?"

Reinsfeld was silent; under other circ.u.mstances he would have rejected all idea of such a suspicion, but the tone of conviction in which the terrible accusation was made, his conversation with Wolfgang, the mystery of the quarrel which had left so bitter a sting behind it that his gentle, amiable father had forbidden the mention of the name of a friend once so dear to him,--all this rushed upon his mind, almost paralyzing his power of thought.

"We must be sure," Gronau said, resolutely. "Where are your father's old papers,--his drawings and sketches? You told me you had preserved them all carefully. There must be something to be found among them, and if not, I will go myself to the president and question him. I am curious to see how he will look. Where are the papers, Benno? Produce them; we have no time to lose."

Benno pointed to a small cabinet in a corner of the room. "You will find there everything that I possess of my father's," he said, sadly.

"Here is the key. Look through it; I----"

"I trust you will help me. You are the interested party. Why do you hesitate?"

The doctor was hesitating, in fact, but Veit had already opened the cabinet, and in a few minutes the rather meagre collection of papers belonging to the late engineer was spread out on the table. His old friend and comrade looked through them with the utmost care; every drawing was closely examined, every leaf turned, but in vain! There was nothing that bore any reference to the matter in question,--no sketch, no note, no memorandum, nothing that could confirm Gronau's suspicions.

Benno, who had undertaken the search unwillingly, breathed a sigh of relief, while Veit pushed the papers aside in great dissatisfaction.

"Fools that we are! We might have known it! Nordheim never would have played his rascally trick had anything existed that could betray him.

He must have borrowed the plan from his friend upon some pretext and then insured himself against discovery. My old Benno was not the one to unmask such a fox unless he had been in possession of convincing proof of his treachery; and I, the only one cognizant of the truth of the case, was off in the wide world no one knew where. But I am here now, and I will not rest until the affair is brought to light."

"But why?" Benno asked, gently. "Why rake up the old forgotten quarrel?

It can do my poor father no good, and should you find the proof you speak of, it would be a terrible blow for--the president's family."

Gronau stared at him for a moment speechless, as if he could not understand his words; then he burst forth, angrily, "Upon my word this is going too far! Any one else would be almost wild with such a discovery, would move heaven and earth to find out the truth and to brand the guilty, and you would fain restrain me because, forsooth, the engineer-in-chief is your friend,--because you are afraid of troubling the family of your worst enemy. You are the true son of your father; he would have done the very same thing."

He was not quite right in his surmise. Benno had not thought of Wolfgang: a very different face had risen in his mind and gazed at him with brown eyes filled with troubled questionings, but not for worlds would he have revealed what made the confirmation of Gronau's suspicions so terrible to him, and why he would rather bury the whole affair in oblivion.

Veit Gronau turned away, saying, in a tone expressing discontent and pity, "There is nothing to be done with you, Benno. Such unpractical sentimentalists are good for nothing in a matter of this kind.

Fortunately, I am on hand. I am now upon the trail, and, cost what it may, I shall pursue it. My old friend shall have in his grave the recognition that was denied him while living!"

CHAPTER XVII.

UNFORESEEN OBSTACLES.

President Nordheim was seated in his office in the capital, in consultation with Herr Gersdorf, for the consignment of the railway to the stockholders was now decided upon. Nordheim's resolve to withdraw from the company after the completion of the undertaking was regretted, but caused no surprise, for the man's restless activity was well known, and it was natural that he should have new schemes wherewith to employ his capital. The glory was his of having devised and executed a bold project which had opened a new highway for the world.

The engineer-in-chief had promised that all building operations should be concluded before the beginning of winter, and as soon as they were finished the transfer was to be made. It would then be the business of the new management to effect the final preparations for the opening of the road, which was to take place the ensuing spring. All this had been settled for months, and Gersdorf, in his capacity of legal representative of the railway company, had had many consultations with the president.

"The engineer-in-chief does in fact achieve almost the impossible," he said, "but yet I cannot understand how he can have all finished by the end of October. The month has begun, and four weeks seems a very short time for the completion of what remains to be done."

"If Wolfgang has said the work shall be done, he will keep his word,"

Nordheim rejoined, in a tone of calm conviction. "In such cases he spares neither himself nor his subordinates, and in this instance he is also driven by necessity. November brings the snowstorms which are most dangerous in the Wolkenstein district; it is very important to have the work finished."

"Hitherto autumn has brought us only late summer weather," the lawyer observed, as he gathered together some papers scattered on the table.

"I cannot wonder that your daughter lingers in the mountains and seems to have no idea of returning."