[_Softly to DR. BOXER._] Look at Mrs. Fielitz, will you, Doctor? Eh? Ain't she grown yellow as a lemon peel?--If only that thing don't go crooked, I tell you. [_He shows to DR. BOXER, who wards him off with a gesture, something secretly in his hollow hand._] D'you want to see somethin'? Eh? That's a fuse, that's what. DR. BOXER [_Softly._] Where did you get that from? LANGHEINRICH It ain't me that knows! That might come from anywhere in the world. It might even come from Fielitz's cellar. Yessir. Maybe you don't believe that? An' if I wanted to be nasty, Doctor ... WEHRHAHN Private conversation is not permitted here. MRS. FIELITZ [_Tugs at LANGHEINRICH'S sleeve and asks softly:_] Didn't you meet Leontine to-day? Where was it? LANGHEINRICH [_With a triumphant glance at SCHULZE._] Over in Woltersdorf. WEHRHAHN Well, then, Glasenapp ... This is a horrible state of affairs--the seventh conflagration this Autumn. And these people pretend to constitute a civilised society! These firebrands pretend to be Christians. One need merely step out on one's balcony to see the reflection of a fire somewhere in the heavens. Now and then in clear nights I have counted the reflections of as many as five. Contempt of judges and laws--that's what it is! And that has taken such hold of these scoundrels that arson has become a kind of diversion.--But they had better go slow. Just a little patience, ladies and gentlemen! We know the tracks! We are on the right scent! And the people in question will have a terrible awakening when, quite suddenly, discovery and retribution come upon them. Any one who is at all versed in the procedure of criminal justice knows that it goes ahead slowly and surely and finally lays hold upon the guilty.--But as Commissioner von Stoeckel quite rightly observed: The whole moral downfall of our time, its actual return to savagery is a consequence of the lack of religion! Educated people do not hesitate to undermine the divine foundations upon which the structure of salvation rests.--But, thank God, we're always to be found at our place! We are, so to speak, always on our watch-tower!--And, I tell you, boy: There is a God! Do you understand? There is a God in Heaven from whom no evil deed remains hidden. Brotherly love! Christian spirit! What your kind needs is to have your breeches drawn tight and your behind flogged! I'd make you sick of playing with fires, you infamous little scamp!--Yes, Dr. Boxer, that is exactly my conviction. You can shrug your shoulders all you please; that doesn't disturb me in the slightest degree. You can even take up your pen and raise the cry of cruelty and unfeelingness in the public prints! Flogging! Christian discipline--that's what is needed, and no sentimental slopping around! You understand! GUSTAV