"I can scarcely speak of a knowledge of the place, General," replied Reinhold. "Only once, and that six years ago, have I cast a glance from the top of these dunes into the country; but I remember clearly that I saw a small tenant-farm, or something of the kind, in that direction. I can promise to find the house. How it will be about quarters I cannot say in advance." "In any case we cannot spend the night here," exclaimed the General. "So, _en avant!_ Do you wish my arm, Else?" "Thank you, Papa, I can get up." And Else leaped upon the dune, following Reinhold, who, hurrying on ahead, had already reached the top, while the General and the President followed more slowly, and the two servants with the effects closed the procession. "Well!" exclaimed Else with delight as, a little out of breath, she came up to Reinhold. "Are we also at the end of our tether, like the President?" "Make fun of me if you like, young lady," replied Reinhold; "I don't feel at all jolly over the responsibility which I have undertaken. Yonder"--and he pointed over the lower dunes into the country, in which evening and mist made everything indistinct--"it must be there." "'Must be,' if you were right! But 'must' you be right?" As if answering the mocking question of the girl, a light suddenly shot up exactly in the direction in which Reinhold's arm had pointed. A strange shudder shot through Else. "Pardon me!" she said. Reinhold did not know what this exclamation meant. At that moment the others reached the top of the rather steep dune. "_Per aspera ad astra_," puffed the President. "I take my hat off to you, Captain," said the General. "It was great luck," replied Reinhold modestly. "And we must have luck," exclaimed Else, who had quickly overcome that strange emotion and had now returned to her bubbling good humor. The little company strode on through the dunes; Reinhold going on ahead again, while Else remained with the other gentlemen. "It is strange enough," said the General, "that the mishap had to strike us just at this point of the coast. It really seems as if we were being punished for our opposition. Even if my opinion that a naval station can be of no use here is not shaken, yet, now that we have almost suffered shipwreck here ourselves, a harbor appears to me----" "A consummation devoutly to be wished!" exclaimed the President. "Heaven knows! And when I think of the severe cold which I shall take from this night's promenade in the abominably wet sand, and that, instead of this, I might now be sitting in a comfortable coupé and tonight be sleeping in my bed, then I repent every word I have spoken against the railroad, about which I have put myself at odds with all our magnates--and not the least with Count Golm, whose friendship would just now be very opportune for us." "How so?" asked the General. "Golm Castle lies, according to my calculation, at the most a mile from here; the hunting lodge on Golmberg----"