“He may have gone farther afield.  As you found the bag, he of course, missed it, and probably continued his search.”

“I doubt that, because I came upon a point of view reaching to the Rhine and the hills beyond.  I could trace the stream for a considerable distance, and watched it for a long time, but there appeared to be nothing alive in the forest.”

“You don’t suppose he has gone back to Frankfort, do you?”

“I am at loss what to think.”

“If he has abandoned this gang of malcontents, I should be the last to blame him.  The way these pigs acted yesterday was disgraceful, ending up their day with rank mutiny and threats of violence.  By the iron Cross, Greusel, he has forsaken this misbegotten lot, and it serves them perfectly right, prating about comradeship and carrying themselves like cut-throats.  This is Roland’s method of returning our money, for I suppose that bag contains your thirty thalers and my twenty-five.”

“Yes, and his own sixty as well.  Poor disappointed devil, generous to the last.  It was he who obtained all the money at the beginning, then these drunken swine spend it on wine, and prove so generous and brave that eighteen of them muster courage enough to face one man, and he the man who had bestowed the gold upon them.”

“Greusel, the whole situation fills me with disgust.  I propose we leave the lot sleeping there, go to Wiesbaden for breakfast, and then trudge back to Frankfort.  It would serve the brutes right.”

“No,” said Greusel quietly; “I shall carry out Roland’s instructions.”

“I thought you hadn’t seen him this morning?”

“Not a trace of him.  You heard his orders at Breckenheim.”

“I don’t remember.  What were they?”

“That if anything happened to him, I was to drive the herd to Assmannshausen.  I quite agree with you, Ebearhard, that he is justified in deserting this menagerie, but, on the other hand, you and I have stood faithfully by him, and it doesn’t seem to me right that he should leave us without a word.  I don’t believe he has done so, and I expect any moment to see him return.”

“You’re wrong, Greusel.  He’s gone.  That purse is sufficient explanation, and as you recall to my mind his instructions, I believe something of this must have suggested itself to him even that early in the day.  He has divested himself of every particle of money in his possession, turning it over to you, but instead of returning to Frankfort he has made his way over the hills to Assmannshausen, and will await us there.”

“What would be the object of that?”

“One reason may be that he will learn whether or not you have enough control over these people to bring them to the Rhine.  He will satisfy himself that your discipline is such as to improve their manners.  It may be in his mind to resign, and make you leader, if you prove yourself able to control them.”

“Suppose I fail in that?”