Here, too, Sylvius Hogg did all in his power to encourage these worthy people.  He had written to the Navy Department, and the government was investigating the matter.  Ole would certainly return at no distant day.  He might drop in upon them, indeed, at any moment.  No; the wedding would not have to be postponed more than six weeks!  The good man seemed so thoroughly convinced of all this, that his auditors were influenced rather by his firm conviction than by his arguments.

This visit to the Helmboe family did the young Hansens good, and they returned home much calmer than they went away.

At last the fifteenth of June came.  The “Viking” was now exactly one month overdue; and as the distance from Newfoundland to the coast of Norway is comparatively short, this delay was beyond all reason, even for a sailing-vessel.

Hulda seemed to have abandoned all hope; and her brother could not find a single word to say by way of encouragement.  In the presence of these poor, unhappy creatures, the professor realized the utter futility of any well-meant attempt at consolation.  Hulda and Joel crossed the threshold only to stand and gaze in the direction of Moel, or to walk up the road leading to Rjukanfos.  Ole Kamp would probably come by the way of Bergen, but he might come by way of Christiania if the destination of the “Viking” had been changed.  The sound of an approaching kariol, a hasty cry, the form of a man suddenly rounding a curve in the road made their hearts beat wildly; but all for naught.  The good people of Dal were also eagerly watching.  Not unfrequently they went half-way to meet the postman.  Everybody was deeply interested, for the Hansen family was exceedingly popular in the neighborhood; and poor Ole was almost a child of the Telemark.  But no letter came from Bergen or Christiania giving news of the absent one.

Nothing new occurred on the sixteenth.  Sylvius Hogg could scarcely restrain his restlessness.  He began to understand that he must proceed to act in person, so he announced to his friends that if no news was received on the following day he should go to Christiania and satisfy himself that nothing had been left undone.  Of course, it was hard for him to leave Hulda and Joel, but there was no help for it; and he would return as soon as his task was accomplished.

On the seventeenth a greater part of the most wretched day they had ever spent together passed without bringing any new developments.  It had rained incessantly since early morning; the wind was blowing a gale, and the rain dashed fiercely against the window on the side of the house nearest the Maan.

Seven o’clock came.  They had just finished dinner, which had been eaten in profound silence, as if in a house of mourning.  Even Sylvius Hogg had been unable to keep up the conversation.  What could he say that he had not already said a hundred times before?

“I shall start for Christiania to-morrow morning,” he remarked at last.  “Joel, I wish you would procure a kariol and drive me to Moel.”