“'Just as good for a sheep as a lamb,' as the proverb says,” muttered Beecher. And he dashed off the name with a reckless flourish. “I 'll tell you one thing, Master Stein,” said he, as he buttoned up the magic volume in the breast of his coat, “if this turn out the good dodge you say it is, I 'll behave handsomely to you. I pledge you my word of honor, I'll stand to you for double--treble the sum you have got written there. _You_ don't know the fellow you're dealing with,--very few know him, for the matter of that,--but though he has got a smart lesson or two in life, he has good stuff in him still; and _if_--I say _if_, because, of course, all depends on _that_--_if_ I can give the bank at Hamburg a spring in the air with the aid of this, I 'll not forget _you_, old boy.” “You make dem all spring in de air!--Ems, Wiesbaden, Baden--all go up togeder!” And the Jew laughed with the glee of a demon. “Not that I want to hurt any one,--not that I 'd like to squeeze a fellow too hard,” broke in Beecher, suddenly, for a quick thrill of superstitious fear--the gambler's innate conscience--shot through him, and made him tremble to think that by a chance word or thought he might disgust the Fortune he would propitiate. “No, no; my motto is, 'Live and let live!' There's room for us all!” And with the utterance of a sentiment he believed so truly generous, he took leave of the Jew, and departed. CHAPTER V. A VILLAGE NEAR THE RHINE It was at a little village called Holbach, about fifteen miles from the right bank of the Rhine, Grog Davis had taken up his quarters while awaiting the arrival of his daughter. Near as it was to that great high-road of Europe, scarcely out of earshot of whizzing steamers and screaming trains, the spot was wonderfully secluded and unvisited. A little trout-stream, known to a few, who treasured the secret like fishermen, made the inn resorted to in the months of May and June; but for the rest of the year the “Golden Hook” had few customers, and the landlord almost abdicated his functions till spring came round again. The house, originally intended for a mill, was built over the river itself, so that the indolent angler might actually have fished from the very window. The pine-clad mountains of Nassau enclosed the narrow glen, which straggled irregularly along for miles, now narrowing to a mere strip, now expanding into little plains of fertile meadow-land, with neat cottages and speckled cattle scattered around them. A narrow belt of garden flanked the river, on whose edge a walk of trellised vines was fashioned,--a charming spot in the sultry heat of summer, with its luxuriant shade above and the rippling stream below. Davis had seen the place years before in some hurried Journey; but his retentive mind carried a full memory of the spot, and he soon found that it comprised all he was in search of,--it was easy of access, secret, and cheap.