[_While he watches_ ANDREW _furtively, he fumbles with his left hand in his vest-pocket, in order to pay the host_.] Why, I can't get it out with-- FREI. The fingers of your left hand are stiff. LINDENSCHMIED (_with a pantomime_). Those of my right will soon become crooked. FREI. Have you had a stroke? LINDENSCHMIED (_laughing hoarsely_). Yes, a leaden one. Two ounces of powder and three of buckshot. [_Constantly speaks in a subdued voice, so as not to awaken_ ANDREW.] A memorandum from that fellow in the Dell. FREI. From Godfrey? LINDENSCHMIED. Because I coined money out of the deer belonging to the owner of Strahlau. There was enough uncoined money running about in the forest. FREI. Let me have another one, host. [_Holds out his glass._] LINDENSCHMIED (_lost in thought, alone in the foreground_). Six times I ran out where he was to pass; but he did not come. At that time conscience was still the fashion. Then I thought: "It is not to be now," and postponed it to some time when he should come along by accident, so that I should be obliged to see that it was to be. For whole nights it choked me like a nightmare and wasted my body, that I should not lay hands on him, and now--ha! ha! ha! [_Gives a short convulsive laugh, thus rousing himself out of his thoughts; looks around embarrassed._] FREI. Did you laugh, Lindenschmied? LINDENSCHMIED. I don't know whether it was me. FREI. You have a queer laugh. Are you going along, Lindenschmied, into the ducal territory? LINDENSCHMIED (_slaps him on the shoulder_). Man, now we have liberty! I have my own way. FREI. I don't care. [_Steps to the background to the host_.] What do I owe you on this last occasion that it is necessary to pay? There; give me change. HOST. You have had three, four-- [LINDENSCHMIED _has availed himself of the moment when no one is looking at him to take away_ ANDREW'S _gun furtively, and hurries out with it_.] FREI. What is the time, host? HOST. Past eight. FREI (_going out_). Good-by. SCENE IV HOST; ANDREW. ANDREW (_starts up_). Eight? Now William may come. HOST (_approaches_ ANDREW _timidly_). You are an honest man. To you I may unburden my mind. They are an abominable set--those that just left. They let fall some words. Godfrey is drunk in the Dell, and Lindenschmied, his mortal enemy, has gone after him. And what didn't he say! He was talking of making his fingers crooked. And that fellow is capable of everything! ANDREW. You believe Lindenschmied intends to have Godfrey's life? HOST. I have said nothing. If I expose their plot, they will burn my house over my head. And if I do nothing-- [_Walks up and down_.] ANDREW (_was about to rise, but sits down again_). To save that fellow? Let happen to him what God permits. I will not turn a finger to save him. HOST (_as before_). What shall I do? ANDREW.