Things were certainly bad enough, and worse for no one than for me, who, as was admitted on all hands, was by far the chief figure in the great smuggling case; for into such proportions, thanks to the inquisitorial genius of the justizrath who had charge of the investigation, a thing which to my eyes was of extreme simplicity had now been developed. As if it was of the least importance how the case looked in _my_ eyes! As if anybody gave himself the trouble to inquire what _my_ thoughts or wishes were! But no; I will do Justizrath Heckepfennig and co-referent Justizrath Bostelmann no injustice. They gave themselves the very greatest trouble; but they had no desire to find out where the truth lay, and where I told them it might be found. "Why had I left my father?" they asked. "Because he ordered me out of his house!" "A fine reason, truly! Angry fathers often tell their sons to be gone, without the idea ever seizing the sons to start off into the wide world. There must be something more behind. Perhaps you wanted to be sent off?" "To a certain extent I admit it." "Perhaps you admit it unqualifiedly?" "I admit it unqualifiedly." "Very good. Actuary, please to take down the reply of the prisoner, who admits without qualification that he wished to be sent off by his father. And when and where did you first make the acquaintance of Herr von Zehren?" "On that evening at Smith Pinnow's." "Had you never seen him before?" "Never, to my knowledge." "Not even at Smith Pinnow's? Pinnow declares that Herr von Zehren was so often at his house, and you also so often, that it is incredible that you never met before." "Pinnow lies, and knows that he lies!" "You still persist then that your meeting with Herr von Zehren was entirely accidental?" "Entirely." "How much money had you about you when you left your father?" "Twenty-five _silbergroschen_, as well as I can remember." "And had you any prospect of obtaining anywhere a permanent position?" "None." "You had no such prospect, had but twenty-five _silbergroschen_ in your possession, were anxious that your father should send you off, and yet you persist in asserting that your meeting on that same evening with the man who took you at once into his house, and with whom you stayed until the final catastrophe, was purely accidental! You are sharp enough to see how extremely improbable this is; and I now ask you for the last time, if, at the risk of casting the strongest suspicions on your veracity, you still persist in that statement?" "I do." Justizrath Heckepfennig cast a look at Actuary Unterwasser as much as to say: Can you conceive such impudence? Actuary Unterwasser smiled compassionately, and sadly shook his head, and scratched away with his pen over his paper, as if his shocked moral sense found some relief in getting such inconceivable things at all events down in black and white.