Edwin Balmer

“ But that makes it my father's stroke, Joseph! He is very weak, and so near to death that he is impatient and afraid. One after one, he has seen us all go—my three brothers, my mother, now Luisa ruined, and me—me threatened while he is barely alive. And he has never been a man to do nothing. He cannot die without attempting some stroke in protest. You heard him when we came in, brooding—brooding as so many times before on the death of our Kaiser. ”

“ Stroebel nodded patiently.
“Most of these may be disregarded,” went on von Engel. “Their influence quickly passes, or they may be punished with the severity which they merit. There is one of these Socialist-radical dog-swine who has been causing the greatest annoyance to the High Command and all loyal Germans like ourselves but who, because of the treacherous unrest of the low people, puts upon us the problem of his removal in such a manner that no one will suspect that he did not die—he is not a young man, so let us say—of heart failure. ”

“ She saw, not Rolf who had betrayed and ruined Luisa, but behind him and exhorting him, the royal state! She saw not only von Engel arresting Joseph and insulting and menacing her, but the High Command who “authorized and called upon” men and girls to debase and debauch each other. And for the moment all formed before her in the person of Authority itself—the face of the All Highest in helmet and uniform: His Majesty, the Kaiser, who had ordered or permitted all these things. ”

“ But you a pretty, and the ethereal adorns you! And you are not—” He frowned as he remembered the man she had been walking with, but he did not turn about to see where Joseph had stopped or whether he had stopped at all. “You are not a Frau, are you, Hetty?”
“No, Herr Hauptmann.”
“Not even a patriotess yet?”
Deep crimson color stained Hetty's forehead and cheeks. “A patriotess?” she repeated, without answering.
Von Engel laughed with satisfaction. “That is good; you are still old fashioned. You will have marriage, and to one man! I recollect you had a sweetheart in the army below Riga ”

“ What Rolf has done to our Luisa is no longer punishable crime; it has become honorable conduct, encouraged by the authorities in Germany to-day. I know beyond doubt you, Joseph, have been instructed to do as he; I know that my little daughter here—my baby Hetty—has been exhorted by the state to become what we used to consider the lowest and most depraved of women, all in the name of patriotism. ”

“ You have killed Joseph! They have arrested him; they have taken him away. Oh, you have killed him, killed him!”
“I?” her father cried. “I—by posting that! Very well. I waited for that, but I need not have waited! The voice of God! Ah, how it calls! How careless men may be! The other day, when he was here and before all this happened, Captain von Engel scribbled for me, to honor me, an order to come to the castle to report to him when my work was done. Well, it is done; and I have his passport! I take my results to him and his master!”
He stepped into his laboratory and took up a metal box ”

“ Stroebel cried out. “It came to him, but it brought him—only that! Only that!”
Beside the still form of His Majesty, the great horse had ceased to move; von Engel's horse too lay dead, and the form of von Engel was motionless upon the snow. But from the direction of the castle other riders appeared; and the fore-riders, who had gone far on, had turned and were coming back. They were the closest, and so Hetty ran to them.
“It is gas—gas which has killed him. It is upon the ground about there. Do not go close!” she cried to the two officers, who returned. ”

“ Joseph fears to bring you to harm at once if notice of your marriage is posted; you, I see, fear for him likewise. Well, we shall see whether in Germany to-day my daughter, even though approved of by a Captain von Engel, may not marry her sweetheart who has served the Fatherland as a soldier. I have sent, since Joseph was here, to the registrar to instruct that the usual public notice of your marriage at once be posted. ”

“ Thought of the trotting horses, ever approaching closer, terrified her; but here, before the sentinel, she could not accuse her father. A safer scheme for gaining entrance came to her—safer for her father, whatever it might prove for her.
“Send word at once to Captain von Engel,” she ordered, “that Fraulein Hetty Stroebel must see him.”
The soldier, having telephoned, stepped back. “Captain von Engel is engaged at present; but later doubtless he will see you. Proceed to the lodge.”
Hetty went by. The way to the lodge led toward the road upon which His Majesty and his escort were riding. ”

“ Hetty warned, glancing about anxiously. “It will be bad enough for us to be found in here now. If we speak at all of the Americans, we must say that they prepare only against Japan; if they tried to send an army across, they could not; and if they got them across, they would not be real soldiers.”
“I know!” Joseph said. “But the facts—”
“Hush!” Hetty begged. Since entering the castle woods, after leaving the town, they had met no one; but now, just ahead in the path through the Schloss woods, she saw a man in captain's uniform approaching. ”

“ Our Kaiser hides at the Ehernschloss once more to rest while he sends his doubles out to endure danger for him and to fool his people. Well he knows he needs them! His enemies among his own people may become so many and so desperate that he must disarm, in these days, even his own soldiers who are not of bis personal guard, when he passes. ”

“ He felt her quivering. “Sympathy for the enemy as well as spying?”
“I was thinking of my father just then.”
“Ah, what about him?”
“A retort in his laboratory broke, Herr Hauptmann. It had in it some of a newer gas. I have been caring for him six months. He is just getting about a little again.”
“I thought you were thinner.” Von squeezed her shoulder. “But it becomes you—you are so delicately built; pretty, small bones, you have!” He exulted over her. “These big-boned Frauen, when they have fasted a bit—ugh! ”

“ He is not strong; that is where the fire is.”
“Tell him to come here; and light that fire there.” He motioned toward the fireplace where a fire was set.
"Yes, Herr Hauptmann.”
Captain von Engel unbuttoned his coat and stood before the fire with his back to Hetty and to her father, who came in and stood waiting. Ostensibly von Engel was warming himself, oblivious of the chemist; in fact, he had glanced at Stroebel and was entirely given to thought about him. For von Engel's glance had discovered that Stroebel was a fated man and knew it ”

“ Well, it is known that even in times of peace he sometimes had the actor Schmalz to appear it places for him to save him inconveniences. Now, to sat him from death, he requires not only Schmalz but two or three—perhaps a dozen—other doubles; who knows? So again he will be sending them around while he hides here! For his people, even on the Rhine, no longer are to be trusted!”
He hobbled to the tab!e where Hetty had laid out the food. “It is not that sixty millions are brought to this or worse ”