“I have indeed such a friend,” replied the innkeeper in a tone of relief, “Hans Irmy, a magistrate of our town. Our places adjoin, and we can easily carry the man thither.” The peasants lent willing aid, and Irmy gladly offered the use of a secret room in his house to the wounded officer. There he lay unconscious for three days; but nature finally triumphed, and his progress toward recovery was rapid, thanks to Walter, Irmy’s son, who tended him with the greatest care. “It does not please me,” said the father one day, “that you should sit the whole day at that foreign soldier’s bedside; such service could be performed quite as well by the servants.” “But, father,” cried Walter, “he is such a fine fellow and can tell such splendid tales of war and the battles he has fought in. It almost makes one long to go away with him.” “Has the stranger suggested that to you?” asked Irmy. “No, not he,” was the answer; “but Iseli, your friend, is always saying that I might make a great success if I were to go out into the world; he seems to think there is something unusual about me.” “Iseli is a fool,” growled the old man, “to put such ideas into your head. Stay in your own country and earn an honest living, that is my advice; and if you must be a soldier, no doubt there will be opportunities enough for you to begin your career in the service of the Fatherland, instead of entering that of any foreign prince.” Crestfallen, Walter slipped away, but half an hour later he was sitting beside the officer again, listening with eager interest to his tales. Heini Süssbacher was often in the sick chamber also, and the two boys soon determined to follow their hero out into the world to seek their fortunes. Not long after this the Captain took leave of the Councillor, with kindly thanks for his hospitality, and set out for Treves to join the Governor, who had already reached Strassburg with the Emperor. He was a considerable distance away from Basle, when suddenly the lads sprang out from the roadside and besought him to take them with him to the ducal court that they too might become soldiers like himself, promising to do their best. Heinrich Vögeli reproved them sharply; but what was he to do with them, as they absolutely refused to return home even if he sent them away? There seemed no alternative except to take them along. At the next town, therefore, he hired two horses for them, that the journey to Strassburg might be more quickly accomplished, and also despatched a messenger secretly to old Irmy to reassure him as to his son’s whereabouts. But old Irmy was not to be appeased so easily; he stormed and grumbled continually about the runaways. “And Heini, too,” he always ended with, “that rascal! as if his father had not already injured me enough in my business by selling his goods at a loss, that he must now lead my son astray, the only child I have in the world, and induce him to become a vagabond and a traitor like that Vögeli!”