I set a couple of pieces in the roof first, where I'd smashed it with my empty bottle; then I took off the lock to see what was wrong there. While I was busy with this the Captain came up. He had evidently been drinking already that day, or was suffering from a heavy bout the night before. “That's no burglary,” he said. “Either the door must have been left open, and slammed itself to bits, or some one must have stumbled up against it in the dark. One of the visitors, perhaps, that left the other day.” But the door had been roughly handled, one could see: the lock was burst open, and the woodwork on the inside of the frame torn away. “Let me see! Put a new bolt in here, and force the spring back in place,” said the Captain, examining the lock. He sat down in a chair. Fru Falkenberg came down the stone steps to the shrubbery, and called: “Is the Captain there?” “Yes,” said I. Then she came up. Her face was twitching with emotion. “I'd like a word with you,” she said. “I won't keep you long.” The Captain answered, without rising: “Certainly. Will you sit down, or would you rather stand? No, don't run away, you! I've none too much time as it is,” he said sharply to me. This I took to mean that he wanted the lock mended so he could take the key with him when he went. “I dare say it wasn't--I oughtn't to have said what I did,” Fruen began. The Captain made no answer. But his silence, after she had come down on purpose to try and make it up, was more than she could bear. She ended by saying: “Oh, well, it's all the same; I don't care.” And she turned to go. “Did you want to speak to me?” asked the Captain. “Oh no, it doesn't matter. Thanks, I shan't trouble.” “Very well,” said the Captain. He smiled as he spoke. He was drunk, no doubt, and angry about something. But Fruen turned as she passed by me in the doorway, and said: “You ought not to drive down there today. There's gossip enough already.” “You need not listen to it,” he answered. “It can't go on like this, you know,” she said again. “And you don't seem to think of the disgrace....” “We're both a little thoughtless in that respect,” he answered carelessly, looking round at the walls. I took the lock and stepped outside. “Here, don't go running away now!” cried the Captain. “I'm in a hurry!” “Yes, you're in a hurry, of course,” repeated Fruen. “Going away again. But you'd do well to think it over just for once. I've been thinking things over myself lately; only you wouldn't see....” “What do you mean?” he asked, haughty and stiff as ever. “Was it your fooling about at night with your hair down and lights out you thought I wouldn't see? Oh yes, no doubt!” “I'll have to finish this on the anvil,” said I, and hurried off. I stayed away longer than was needed, but when I came back Fruen was still there. They were talking louder than before.