"I did it, because I knew how hard up he was. He had five thousand thalers to pay Herr Redebas the following noon, and if he did not pay them he might be refused a place in the races. I knew that--I have been at them often enough, and know as much about the rules as any of the gentlemen--and I knew that he would make no fuss afterwards, although he had said nothing about it, and I believe had not even thought of the money the Herr Assessor carried in his pocket. But I had thought of it all day long, and even looked out the place as we drove to Dollan. It had long overhung the morass, and the rain had made long cracks in it, so I said to myself: 'If they drive back to-night, and the carriage is turned out of the road here, the earth will break off, and the whole thing will slide down, and that's an accident which might happen to the best driver, on a stormy night such as this will be.'" "Only you might easily have gone down with the rest," said Gotthold. "You mean, if I hadn't jumped out of the carriage at the right time? Bah, sir! It's no harder than to get off a horse that is running away, when one sees it is going to fall. I jumped out at the right time, and then the ground broke away, and slid down with a thundering, crashing sound, and then all was perfectly still, except that one or two small pieces cracked off and rattled down the slope, and the tempest swept howling and moaning over the morass; but that was nothing new to me, and it was perfectly still below. "I stood up and looked down, wondering how far the land-slide had probably gone. If the marl had held together well, it had doubtless fallen into the bog, and with its speed and weight had been buried nobody knows how deep; but it had jolted violently on the way, and I had heard it; the whole carriage must have broken to pieces, and in that case everything might still be lying on the edge. I must know how matters were, so I made up my mind to climb down. "But it was hard work; I could not find the right place in the dark, and nearly fell myself; at last, however, I reached the bottom of the slope." "Well!" "Well, then I groped around there; the moon had also broken through the clouds a little, and I soon found the carriage, or what was left of it; it was smashed into small pieces, and one horse was lying among them; it had broken its neck and was dead as a door-nail. Close beside the horse lay the Herr Assessor, but he was still breathing, and when I turned him on his back he groaned heavily, and then twitched several times; he would die without my help, and I had already taken the money out of his pocket, and buttoned up the coat again so that it might look as if he were lying just as he fell." "Did you not look for me?"