Clear the Track! Part 28

"I beg pardon, I have it from the best authority."

"It is not true, I tell you! You have been falsely informed--must have been."

"Hardly, but it can soon be settled, since you are expecting Runeck."

Dernburg started up and began to pace the floor in the greatest excitement, but let him consider the matter as he would, it appeared to him as incredible as at the first moment.

"Folly! Egbert is not going to act in such a farce. He knows that he must oppose me, and enter the lists against his old friend."

"Do you believe that will hinder him?" asked Oscar mockingly. "Herr Runeck, at all events, stands high above all those old prejudices of grat.i.tude and dependence, and who knows whether his election is so hopeless? For months past he has been out at Radefeld, withdrawn from observation, and had a few hundred workmen at his disposal. He will, at all events, have secured their votes, and each individual ensures him ten, nay, twenty votes among his comrades here at Odensburg. He has made good use of his time, you may depend."

Dernburg gave no answer, but his step grew ever more hurried, his mien more threatening, while Wildenrod continued:

"And this is the man upon whom you have showered benefits! He has to thank you for his education, his culture,--all that he is. You gave him a position that is envied by all the officers, and he makes use of it to secretly undermine your authority and to strike a blow at you here, with the votes of your own men."

"Do you deem that possible?" asked Dernburg with sharpness. "I think we need give ourselves no anxiety on that score."

"I hope not, but it will at least be attempted, and that is enough. Up to this time Runeck has very wisely been silent, although he must have known for months what was in agitation. This will finally open your eyes to your favorite, or do you still disbelieve my report?"

"I do. As for the rest Egbert will explain matters to me."

"Because he must! It will be an evil hour for you too, for I see how the bare possibility excites you, and yet----"

"Go, Oscar!" enjoined Dernburg, frowning. "Egbert may come any minute, and whatever may be the issue of the interview, I want to talk with him alone."

He held out his hand to the Baron, who took his departure; a proud pa.s.sionate pride of victory flashed from his eyes, as the latter crossed the next room. Finally he had set foot upon the ground, where his ambition hailed him as future master, sole master, when the present ruler of Odensburg should close his eyes. Eric voluntarily vacated the field to him, if he took his wife to live in a foreign country and became completely estranged from his native place. Now they were to be realized--those proud dreams of power and wealth, beside them blooming a sweet joy unknown before. A little while longer, and the goal so ardently thirsted after would be attained and the past be blotted out--buried!

Wildenrod was just entering the front hall, when the door to this opened and Egbert Runeck confronted him. Involuntarily he retreated a step; Runeck, too, started and then stood still. He saw that the Baron wanted to pa.s.s him, but he tarried upon the threshold as though he would obstruct his pa.s.sage. For a few seconds they stood thus regarding one another, when Oscar asked sharply:

"Have you anything to say to me, Herr Runeck?"

"For the present--no," answered Egbert coldly. "Later, perhaps."

"It is questionable, though, whether I shall then have time and inclination to listen to you."

"I believe you will have time, Herr von Wildenrod."

The glances of the two men crossed, one sparkling with fierce and deadly hatred, the other full of dark threatening; then said Oscar haughtily:

"Meanwhile may I desire you to move aside? You see that I want to go out."

Runeck slowly retired and left the doorway clear. Wildenrod pa.s.sed him by, and again there played around his lips that mocking, triumphant smile. Now he no longer dreaded the danger that had hitherto hung over his head like a thunder-cloud. If his adversary now spoke, he would no longer find an auditor. The "evil hour" preparing for him in yonder must forever annihilate his foe.

CHAPTER XIII.

RUNECK LEAVES ODENSBURG.

When Runeck entered his chief's work-room, he found him at his desk, and there was nothing unusual in the manner of his reception and the way in which his salutation was returned. Not until he took out a portfolio and opened it did Dernburg say:

"Let that be, you can report to me later; for now I must talk with you about something more important."

"I should like to have your attention for a few minutes, beforehand, if you please," said Egbert, taking a number of papers from the portfolio.

"The works at Radefeld are almost finished, the Buchberg is tunneled, and the whole water-power of the estate available for Odensburg. Here are the plans and the drawings; the only thing to do now is to conduct the supply to the works, and this can be done by some one else if I withdraw."

"Withdraw? What does that mean? That you will not carry the works on to completion?"

"No. I have come to--to beg my dismissal."

The words sounded low, and were evidently hard to utter, and the young engineer avoided looking at his superior. The latter gave no sign of surprise. He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms.

"That, indeed! Well, you must know what you have to do. If you really want to go, I shall not detain you. But I believed that you would at least complete the work you had undertaken. It has not otherwise been your way to half do things."

"I am going for that very reason. The voice of another duty calls me, that I must obey."

"And which makes it impossible for you to remain at Odensburg?"

"Yes!"

An infinitely bitter expression flitted across Dernburg's features.

Here was the confirmation of that which he had not wanted to believe; there was hardly any need to put the question.

"You mean the approaching elections?" said he with freezing calmness.

"It is said that the Socialists are going to put up a candidate of their own for our district, and you, I suppose, are determined to vote for him. In that case, I can well understand how you should ask for your discharge. Neither the confidential position that you hold at Radefeld, nor your relations to me and my family comport with such a step as that. There is no deceiving of ourselves into imagining that the antagonism here is against any one but myself."

Egbert stood there speechless, his eyes fixed on the ground. One could see how hard it was for him to make a confession, which was not lightened for him by word or hint. But suddenly he straightened himself up with determination stamped upon his face.

"Herr Dernburg, I have a disclosure to make to you, which you will misinterpret, but which you must hear nevertheless. The candidate whom my party has nominated is--I."

"Do you actually demean yourself so far as to make me such a communication?" asked Dernburg slowly. "I hardly believed it. The surprise intended would have been more complete, if I had learned it through the newspapers."

"What, you know already----" exclaimed Egbert.

"What you have found good to hide from me until today. Yes, I knew it and wish you good luck in your schemes. You are not timid, with your eight-and-twenty years; you already boldly grasp at an honor which I first felt to be my due after the toil of a lifetime. You have barely left apprentice-years behind you, and already allow yourself to be lifted upon the s.h.i.+eld, as tribune of the people. Well, good luck to you!"

Listening to the bitter sarcasm of this speech, Runeck's complexion changed rapidly, the color coming and going, while his voice had not its wonted firmness, when he replied:

"I have feared that you would take such a view of the matter, and this makes yet more painful the position into which I have been forced by the action of my party. I resisted to the last moment, but at last they----"

"Forced you, did they?" interrupted Dernburg with a bitter laugh, "of course you are nothing but a victim to your convictions. I foresaw that you would screen yourself thus. Give yourself no trouble, I understand."

"I speak truth, I think, you know that," said Egbert, solemnly.

Dernburg got up and stood close in front of him.