"As I say, Wolf, I do not know what to think of it. I never applied for the position. I did not, in fact, know anything about it, and here it is offered to me,--to me in this secluded Oberstein at the other end of the kingdom. There, read for yourself."

As he spoke, Benno Reinsfeld handed his friend a letter which he had received the day before. They were in the doctor's study, and Elmhorst also seemed surprised as he read the letter through attentively.

"It certainly is an admirable position," he said. "Neuenfeld is one of our largest iron-works,--I know the place by name at least, and the working population form a colony there, while you can establish the pleasantest relations with the multitude of officials employed in the management of the factories. Why, your salary will amount to six times your present income. Of course you must accept it. You must not let your good fortune slip again."

"But that other time I took infinite trouble to obtain the position. I sent in a scientific treatise that got me the preference, and then I was dropped, just because I could not come up to time. I have no association with Neuenfeld,--I do not know a soul there,--and with such advantages to offer there must be at least a dozen applicants for the post. How does the management know of the existence of a Dr. Reinsfeld in Oberstein?"

Wolfgang looked down thoughtfully, then read over the letter again: "I think I can solve the riddle for you," he said at last. "The president has had a hand in it."

"The president? Impossible!"

"On the contrary, very probable. He is interested pecuniarily in the iron-works, and he put the present director there; his influence extends everywhere."

"But he certainly would not exert that influence in my behalf. You yourself saw how coldly he received me on the only occasion when I have had the honour of meeting him."

"Nor do I think that he has been induced to interfere thus for benevolence's sake, but---- Benno, do you really know nothing of the cause of the breach between your father and Nordheim? Can you not remember some expression, some hint, that would give you a clue to it?"

Benno seemed to reflect, and then shook his head: "No, Wolf; no child heeds such things. I only know that afterwards, when I asked after 'Uncle Nordheim,' my father, with a severity very unlike himself, forbade my speaking of him. Soon afterwards my parents died, and in the hard struggle that ensued I had too much to do to allow of my reviving childish memories. But why do you ask?"

"Because I am now convinced that something very serious occurred then, the sting of which is still sharp after twenty years. It caused the only difference I have ever had with Herr Nordheim, who visits his anger upon you, who are entirely innocent of all offence."

"Possibly; but that would be all the more reason why he should not obtain for me a lucrative position."

"It is just what he would do, were there no other means of removing you from his vicinity, and I fear that this is the true state of the case. He even wished to put a stop to your professional visits to his daughter. I did not tell you of it, because I thought it might, with justice, offend you, and he apparently changed his mind; but I am quite sure that I see his hand in this offer to you, from an entirely unexpected quarter, of a position that will keep you confined to a spot quite as distant from here as from the capital."

"Why, that would be a positive plot," Reinsfeld interposed, incredulously. "Do you really suspect the president of it?"

"Yes," said Elmhorst, coldly. "But, however the case may stand, so advantageous a position is not likely to come in your way soon again: so accept it by all means."

"Even if it be offered to me from such motives?"

"They are only supposititious; and even were they actual, no one in Neuenfeld knows anything of the circumstances; there they merely accept the recommendation of an influential man. Perhaps he perceives the injustice of visiting an old grudge upon you and wishes to indemnify you, since your presence recalls disagreeable memories."

Wolfgang knew well that this could not be so; his talk with the president had convinced him that he could be actuated by no sentiments of justice or magnanimity, but the young engineer wished to make the way easy for his friend, with whose sensitive delicacy he was familiar. Under all circumstances it was a piece of good fortune for Reinsfeld to be removed from his present obscure position, no matter whose was the influence to which he owed the change.

"We will discuss it this evening when you come to me," Elmhorst continued, taking his hat from the table. "Now I must go; my conveyance is waiting outside; I am driving to the lower railway."

"Wolf," said Benno, with a searching, anxious glance at his friend's face, "did you sleep at all last night?"

"No; I had some work to do. That sometimes will happen."

"Sometimes! It has come to be the rule with you. I believe you hardly sleep at all."

"Not much, it is true, but there is no help for it. Every structure must be finished before the winter sets in. Of course that makes a deal of work, and as engineer-in-chief I must see to it all."

"You are overworking yourself perilously. Hardly any other man could do as you are doing, and you cannot go on thus for long. How often I have told you----"

"The same old story," Wolfgang interrupted him, impatiently. "Let me alone, Benno; there is no help for it."

The doctor had, unfortunately, learned from experience that all his admonitions on this point would avail nothing, and he shook his head anxiously as he escorted his friend to the carriage. He himself was unwearied in the performance of his duties, but he knew nothing of the feverish state of mind that seeks forgetfulness in labour at whatever cost.

In the hall they met Veit Gronau, who had come with Waltenberg from Heilborn, and had taken the opportunity to pay a visit to Oberstein. The gentlemen bade each other good-day, and then Elmhorst got into his carriage, while the two others returned to the study.

"The Herr Engineer-in-Chief was in a great hurry," said Gronau, settling himself in the leathern arm-chair, the leg of which had, fortunately, been mended. "He scarcely took time to speak to me, and he looks very little like a happy lover. He's always as pale and gloomy as the marble guest! And yet he surely has reason to be contented with his lot."

"Yes, I am anxious about Wolf," Benno declared. "He is not at all like himself, and I am afraid the post he so coveted will be his bane. Even his iron, constitution cannot stand the strain of feverish activity which fills his days and nights. He oversees the entire extent of railway, and he never gives himself an instant's rest, in spite of all I can say."

"Yes, he is everywhere except with his betrothed," Gronau remarked, drily. "The lady seems to be of a remarkably unexacting temperament, else she could hardly endure having her lover entirely given over to locomotives, and tunnels, and bridges, or to have him declare as soon as he appears that he has not a moment to stay. But she takes it all as quite a matter of course. 'Tis an odd household, that of the Nordheim villa. With two pair of lovers, one would suppose all would go as merrily as a marriage-bell, but instead of that they all seem rather uncomfortable, not excepting Herr Waltenberg. Said and Djelma are always complaining to me of his temper. I explained to them that it was all because he was thinking of marrying; that matrimony was sure to make mischief; but the rogues persist in thinking it very fine."

"Oh, you are a declared foe to matrimony, as we all know," said Reinsfeld, with a fleeting smile. "If Wolfgang is out of sorts,--and the responsibilities of his position may well make him so,--his betrothed is, in looks and temper, all that could be desired."

"Yes, she is the gayest of all," Gronau assented. "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 worshipped, 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 'God 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 assure 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, hush!" 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 circumstances 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!"