There were often moments when I longed to ask Haase or one of the others about the time my brother had served in that place. But I feared to draw attention to myself. No one asked any questions of me (questions as to personal antecedents were discouraged at Haase's), and, as long as I remained the unpaid, useful drudge I felt that my desire for obscurity would be respected. Desultory questions about my predecessors elicited no information about Francis. The Haase establishment seemed to have had a succession of vague and shadowy retainers. Only about Johann, whose apron I wore, did Otto become communicative. "A stupid fellow!" he declared. "He was well off here. Haase liked him, the customers liked him, especially the ladies. But he must fall in love with Frau Hedwig (the lady at the bar), then he quarrelled with Haase and threatened him--you know, about customers who haven't got their papers in order. The next time Johann went out, they arrested him. And he was shot at Spandau!" "Shot?" I exclaimed. "Why?" "As a deserter." "But was he a deserter?" "Ach! was! But he had a deserter's papers in his pockets ... his own had vanished. Ach! it's a bad thing to quarrel with Haase!" I made a point of keeping on the right side of the landlord after that. By my unfailing diligence I even managed to secure his grudging approval, though he was always ready to fly into a passion at the least opportunity. One evening about six o'clock a young man, whom I had never seen among our regular customers, came down the stairs from the street and asked for Haase, who was asleep on the sofa in the inner room. At the sight of the youth, Frau Hedwig jumped off her perch behind the bar and vanished. She came back directly and, ignoring me, conducted the young man into the inner room, where he remained for about half an hour. Then he reappeared again, accompanied by Frau Hedwig, and went off. I was shocked by the change in the appearance of the woman. Her face was pale, her eyes red with weeping, and her eyes kept wandering towards the door. It was a slack time of the day within and the cellar was free of customers. "You look poorly, Frau Hedwig," I said. "Trouble with Haase again?" She looked up at me and shook her head, her eyes brimming over. A tear ran down the rouge on her cheek. "I must speak," she said. "I can't bear this suspense alone. You are a kind young man. You are discreet. Julius, there is trouble brewing for us!" "What do you mean?" I asked. A foreboding of evil rose within me. "Kore!" she whispered. "Kore?" I echoed. "What of him?" She looked fearfully about her. "He was taken yesterday morning," she said. "Do you mean arrested?" I exclaimed, unwilling to believe the staggering news. "They entered his apartment early in the morning and seized him in bed. Ach! it is dreadful!" And she buried her face in her hands.