Clear the Track! Part 50

He started for the telephone, when all of a sudden the noise ceased. He hushed quite suddenly, only a few individual voices being heard; then these too were silent and a deathlike silence prevailed. The officers hurried to the window, in order to see what was going on.

"There is the master!" exclaimed Winning. "I thought that he would appear without summons, if he heard that tumult."

"But how he does look!" added Hagenbach, in a whisper. "I fear that nature will give way."

"Let us open the doors, so that he can retreat here in case of necessity," said the director, who had likewise come up. "He is quite alone, not even Wildenrod is with him. We must go to him! Quick, gentlemen!"

The doors were opened that had been locked from the inside, but the officers could neither reach their chief, nor he them--a dense ma.s.s of men stood between, and held the square before the house. The attempt of the director and his colleagues, to break through this living wall, was vain--the workmen standing nearest a.s.sumed so threatening an att.i.tude, the gentlemen desisted, so as not to tempt to a deed of violence that would have immediately reacted against Dernburg.

He had made use of the little by-path that led from the Manor to the superintendent's building, without going near the works. n.o.body had seen his approach, and now he suddenly stood among his workmen as if he had sprung from the ground. The whole force of his personal presence was shown at this moment--his bare appearance had the most subduing effect upon the just now fiercely excited mult.i.tude, who suddenly stood, as it were, spellbound. All eyes were directed toward that tall form, with darkly knitted eyebrows; all waited for the first word from his mouth. His glance slowly swept over the crowd that he had once swayed by a single nod, and who now withstood him thus. Still he spoke not, for it seemed as though utterance had failed him.

Unfortunately it happened that Landsfeld, with Fallner, was in immediate proximity to him. There, in front of the superintendent's building, where they had cooped in the officers, the rashest of his followers had found themselves together, the Socialist leader had taken his stand. Dernburg's appearance seemed to him to be neither surprising nor undesired; on the contrary, there flashed into his eyes a look as of satisfaction, as he whispered to Fallner, who was constantly at his side, as a sort of adjutant:

"There is the old man! I knew that he would not stay quietly at home while the devil was to pay over at his works. Now the ball begins to roll!"

Finally Dernburg began to speak: his voice was loud and firm, and the deep silence round about caused every word to be distinctly heard.

"What means this noise here at the works? There is no reason for it.

You gave warning, and I have had the workshops closed and shall keep them closed. You have been paid your wages, so now go home!"

The workmen were startled; they had been accustomed to their chiefs speaking shortly and dictatorially, but this cold, contemptuous tone they heard from his lips now for the first time. They felt it at once, without being able exactly to account for it.

Now Landsfeld deemed that the hour had come for his personal interference. "You and the rest follow me," was his brief command to Fallner, and then, without further ceremony, he turned to Dernburg.

"The question here is not one of pay," he began, with insolent mien.

"What the workmen want of you, Herr Dernburg, they have already communicated to you. Those unjust dismissals are to----"

"Who are you? Who gives you the right to put in a word here?"

interrupted Dernburg, although he knew the speaker by sight as well as that person knew him.

"My name is Landsfeld," was the haughty reply. "I think that suffices for my justification."

"Intermeddling from without I do not brook. Leave Odensburg on the spot!"

This order sounded proud and contemptuous. Landsfeld retired a step and measured from head to foot the man who stood before him, unsupported, and yet dared to speak thus.

"Such an order I shall not heed," answered he, scornfully. "I stand here in the name of my party, which Odensburg matters very nearly concern. Comrades! do you recognize me as your proxy? Am I to speak for you?"

Fallner and his men, who had followed their leader and encircled him on all sides, answered with stormy approval, while the others remained silent. Landsfeld triumphantly raised his head.

"You hear it! I tell you, then, that the conditions imposed by you before the resumption of work are shameful and degrading. I declare the man that submits to them to be a coward and traitor."

"And I declare that I have nothing to do with you or the like of you,"

cried Dernburg, extremely provoked by this challenge. "I made conditions for my workmen, to whom alone I shall re-open the works--with men of your stamp I have nothing at all to do."

Landsfeld started up, enraged. "With men of my stamp? We are indeed only worms in the eyes of this high and mighty lord? Comrades! do you put up with this?"

He did not appeal in vain to his comrades. Abusive words and threats were hurled at Dernburg, who was ever more closely wedged in by the mob. Cut off from any a.s.sistance, at any instant he might look for the worst.

Then were heard in the distance loud clamor and shouts, not of a fierce and menacing kind, though, but as if some one was being joyfully received, Now they could even distinguish an enthusiastic "huzza" that was loud and long-drawn-out, and continually came nearer. "Long live Runeck! Long live Egbert Runeck!" sounded from all quarters, and, through the midst of the densely-packed ma.s.ses, a way was opened for the engineer, who rapidly drew near.

Breathless from his impetuous walk, he placed himself by Dernburg's side with an air that showed plainly enough that he was determined to stand by him and fall with him. He looked defiance at Landsfeld, who returned his glance with a scornful shrug of the shoulders.

"Are you actually here, my dear fellow?" he murmured. "If you _will_ break your own neck, then I need not do it for you."

Runeck, meanwhile, had taken a rapid survey of the situation; he recognized its peril, and seized the sole means that had promise of safety.

"Back from the house!" was his order to the workmen who held the superintendent's office beleaguered. "Do you not see that Herr Dernburg wants to get to his officers? I'll escort him; make room!"

The people were surprised, shocked at the part taken; they obeyed, however, and began to retire. The square in front of the house was gradually emptied, and if Dernburg were once there in the midst of his officers, he would be also in safety. If Runeck, then, remained at his side, the whole affair would wind up peacefully. But this did not at all fit into Landsfeld's plan, and again he struck in.

"What means this?" he cried in a sharp stentorian voice. "Our delegate takes part against us, and ranges himself on the enemy's side, does he?

Herr Runeck! your place is with us. You have to represent us--or do you mean to turn traitor?"

That evil word "traitor" immediately took effect, and a low threatening murmur became audible. Now Runeck lost the moderation that he had hitherto found it hard enough to preserve in face of Landsfeld's effrontery.

"You yourselves are traitors and villains if you a.s.sault the man who has helped you in every way that he could," he thundered. "Back from him! whoever touches him, I shall strike to the ground!"

His bearing was wild and threatening, so that all shrank back save Landsfeld only.

"Suppose you try that on me, then?" he yelled, rus.h.i.+ng forward to attack Dernburg, but in the same minute, felled by a powerful blow of Egbert's fist, he sank to the ground with a loud outcry, where he lay with blood streaming over him.

The sudden lightning-like deed unchained all the pa.s.sions of the raging mob.

With a fierce shout, Fallner and his fellows rushed upon Runeck, who threw himself in front of Dernburg and covered him with his body. For a few minutes his gigantic strength held out against the a.s.sailants, but the end of this unequal contest was to be foreseen. Then suddenly a knife flashed in Fallner's uplifted hand, a mighty thrust--and Egbert fell down, bleeding.

But this time the deed had a different effect from what it had had before, the mult.i.tude standing paralyzed, as it were, by horror.

Suddenly the monstrous character of the whole proceeding seemed to strike them. Fallner himself stood there motionless, as though shocked by his own deed. The tumult was hushed; n.o.body hindered Dernburg, who, with pale face and compressed lips, slowly stooped down and took the unconscious Egbert in his arms.

Meanwhile, seeing that the square in front of the house was clear, the officers made a renewed attempt to force their way to the chief; it had only succeeded in a measure, but they already found themselves quite near to him, when that b.l.o.o.d.y incident supervened. Doctor Hagenbach, with quick presence of mind, profited by it to accomplish their end.

"Room for the surgeon!" cried he, pressing forward. "Let me through!"

This word availed; a narrow path was opened for him in the densely-packed throng, and the officers crowded after; in a few minutes Dernburg was surrounded by them. But he did not concern himself on that score; he knelt by Egbert, whose head he supported, and when the doctor now stooped down and examined the wound, he asked softly, in a tone of deep distress:

"Is he--mortally wounded?"

"Very severely!" said Hagenbach, loudly and earnestly. "He must be conveyed somewhere instantly."

"To the Manor-house!" suggested Dernburg.

"Yes, indeed, that is best." He quickly put on a bandage, and then turned, in pa.s.sing, to the bleeding Landsfeld, in order to examine him as well.

"There is no danger here!" he called aloud to the bystanders. "The blow has only stunned the man. Carry him into the house--he will soon again come to his senses--there is no cause for uneasiness about him. But Runeck--he is badly hurt!"

His manner showed that he feared the worst, and this decided the mood of the mult.i.tude. There arose an agitated murmur, that was transmitted from mouth to mouth, until it reached the ranks of those who had stood too far off to see what had been going on. And now, when Egbert was picked up and borne away, a movement of horror pa.s.sed through the throng of human beings. They saw their deputy, whom they had elected in defiance of their chief, and lifted upon the s.h.i.+eld with loud rejoicings lying lifeless and covered with blood, in the arms of the officers, who bore him away, and their chief walked by his side and held in his the hand of the unconscious young man. No request was needed to induce them to make way: all moved silently aside, when the melancholy procession came past--not a word, not a sound was to be heard. A silence as of death fell upon all those thousands.