"Don't talk in that way, Sandwirth," said Franz, whiningly. "Poor as I am,--and I'm very poor,--I hope I'm not so bad as you think me." "Well, Franz, as to poor, you have made a good deal of money in your time; and it has always been your way to be with full pockets one day and empty ones the next--" "But they're _always_ empty now, Sandwirth, for I can't do a stroke of business, and my mother's dead, and my sister's married to Karl Hoven, and Karl won't speak to me; so that I'm really what one may call _in want_." "Well, boy, well--the case is hard, I grant ye: but bad as it is, you'll make it worse if you take to evil courses. Go to Nicolas Wagner at Botzen--tell him that the last time you saw me, I bade you go to him and say I hoped he would give you some employment. And be mum--do you observe?--as to when that was. Stay, here are a couple of dollars--it's but little I have myself, and I shall perhaps need them shortly, as much as yourself; but you shall have them. Now, go; and forget where or when you have seen me; and according as you are faithful to your old comrade, may your worldly affairs prosper." Franz looked sheepish, made a movement of his hand towards Hofer's, drew it back, and crept off. Even his gait was that of a caitiff. "How altered the Sandwirth is!" mused he--"his hair, that was raven black, is now half grey; his beard looks as if it hadn't been trimmed for a month. His face is full of lines and furrows, and he is very thin. Why, he isn't half the bulk he was!--very likely, knows pretty well what it is to want victuals. Well, so do I; and when a man wants victuals, it makes him ready to do things that he wouldn't think of doing when full fed. Why now, these two dollars will keep me four days, I'll say--they won't keep me longer, because, this cold weather, I must drink as well as eat. At the end of that time, I must starve, unless through Father Donay; for, as to Nicolas Wagner of Botzen,--no, I thank ye! I'm as good a fellow as he; I won't work under him! Still, I can't be too hard upon the Sandwirth--I'll give him a fair start. He dropped that perhaps he should soon be as much in want of dollars as myself. Now, as he can't spend them on the mountain-top, that must intimate that he means soon to leave it--very likely, now that he has taken alarm at me, he'll steal off this very night. All the better for us both, if he does. Because all I engaged for, to Father Donay, was to find out where he was. I've done that, and I can lead to the spot; but if, when they reach it, the steed is gone and the stable empty,--why, that won't be _my_ fault, I say. Besides, they may soon make out his track and follow it; but meanwhile, my part in the business will be done. Well, but I won't do it while the Sandwirth's money is keeping me in bread. No, no; I'll give him his chance while it lasts, and I'll make it last four days--that will be hon ... hum!--I won't go a-near