Annele placed her hand in his. "If I had only my pipe; it is so stupid in you not to smoke, Lenz," said Petrowitsch, in a complaining voice. The thoughts of his collection of pipes at home, must have reminded him of his fireproof strongbox, for he continued:--"I tell you fairly, that even if we are saved, you need not expect any money from me--not a single dollar." "We shall not want it then," said Lenz; and Annele asked in her clear voice:-- "Do you know who will not believe you?" "You?" "No! the world will never believe it; if you were to swear it a hundred times over, no man will credit, that he who shared our deadly peril, will not share his life with us henceforth. The world will in future give us credit for your sake, and make us rich if we like." "You are as shrewd and mischievous as ever," said Petrowitsch; "I thought all your gay gibes were at an end for ever." "I am thankful they are not," cried Lenz; "Annele, keep up your lively spirits; if God rescues us from this peril, be honest and merry, as Pilgrim says." Annele threw her arms round Lenz's neck, and kissed him affectionately. All the three suddenly felt that they had become as cheerful as if all danger were past, and yet, at this moment, it was greater than ever. They would none of them point it out to the others, but yet they saw with awe and fear, that the walls were trembling, and the cross beams sinking. Annele and Lenz held each other in a close embrace:-- "Let us die thus, and shelter the child by our bodies," cried Annele. "Farewell, life! Lord God, save our child!" "Hark! there is a hollow sound; help is at hand! we are saved! we are saved!" CHAPTER XXXIX. SAVED. "I hear two distinct knocks following each other," cried Lenz; "I will give a signal in answer; I will set the clocks all playing." He did so, but the confusion of sounds quite stupefied him; even at this moment of deadly anguish, the discord was insupportable to him. In his excitement, he had injured the mechanism of the largest musical clock, which went to his heart. Again they held their breath and listened eagerly, but all was still. "I rejoiced too soon," said Petrowitsch, his teeth chattering from excitement, "we are still nearer death than life." Again distinct knocks were heard, and Petrowitsch complained that the hammering seemed to knock his head, and that every blow went through his brain. Lenz could not have set the clocks properly, for suddenly one of them began to play the air of the grand Hallelujah, and Lenz sang with it:--"Hallelujah! Praise God, the Lord!" Annele sang with him, placing one hand on Lenz's shoulder, and the other on the head of her child, and up above a voice shouted--"Hallelujah! Hallelujah!" "Pilgrim! my dearest of all friends!" cried Lenz, in a voice that was heartrending. The door of the room was broken in with a hatchet. "Are you all still alive?" cried Pilgrim.