Chapter Eighteen

The italicized bits are what I'm unsure about.

     Days full of hot excitement followed.  The Kurkappelle played only patriotic tunes, a thick cluster of people stood around it, clapt enthusiastic applause, and sang the "Lieb Vaterland, kannst ruhig sein!" until late at night.  Out of the coffee houses and restaurants rang by turns the German and Austrian national anthems.  A stream of the enthusiasm and of the cheerful confidence pervaded the same people who usually had an eye and heart only for idle prattle, games, and sport.

     The excitement rose and surged and boiled like the sea on her worst days.  The office of the "Seastar," which lay under the hall, was now besieged by the guests at all times of the day, and the master of the house had nothing to do but write bills, answer a thousand questions, and give all sorts of explanations about railway connections and steamship trips.  Everyone prepared for the withdrawal and rushed home as fast as possible.

     Even Hans had packt his things and handed them over to the porter for forwarding to the train station.  When he came down from the great hall in the early morning of the last July dawn, which was hot from the beginning and shining in the pure golden sun that had risen over the sea, there was hardly anything to see.  Mountains of suitcases piled up, only with trouble was the way between them kept free.

     Although the seventh hour had only just struck,

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in which everyone here usually lay in the deepest sleep, most had already breakfasted.  He had to wait, there was no one there for service, everyone was busy with the departure.  A surging and running, a calling and asking, a searching for all sorts of forgotten or hidden items filled the hall and the side rooms, so that one could believe that a fire had suddenly broken out and everyone saved and gathered together what was still possible to save.  The whole thing seemed like an escape; the promenade, usually completely empty at this time, was swarming with people as far as one could see.  Because yester-day in the late evening the news had come that the political situation had come to a head, the peace negotiations of the German Kaiser had failed, and a European war would be certain.  Now there was no more stopping.  Homeward!  That was the only thought, the burning wish, that fulfilled everything.

     Finally a moment of calm set in.  Now Hans too could get his breakfast.  It was the last meal that he would have at his preferred window seat, across from the sea.  It was completely empty around him, even the large table in the middle of the dining room was vacant.

     Only one sat at it:  the black Russian.  He tapped his soft-boiled egg with such ease, as if the whole matter didn't concern him at all, he cut the juicy ham and carried it in large quantities into his obtuse mouth over his thick Van Dyke beard.

     Nuscha's chair was empty.  "She will come with the children," he said to himself.  The door opened, the two children appeared, greeted their father respectfully,

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and took seats across from him.  Nuscha's chair remained empty.

     Where could she be?  Had the general confusion swept her away too?  Had she already gone with the others?  Maybe to have escaped secretly from her government?  That he still had to occupy himself with thoughts of her!

     He had given out his tips and said goodbye to the head waiter.  He had always been pleasant to him, he had a quiet, refined way, always showed a friendly expression, even if his heart was sometimes probably rightly outraged, and knew to deal with the most difficult guests sensibly.  To-day, however, he saw him grieved for the first time.

     "Summer after summer have I been here in the 'Seastar,'" he said, "it is now the tenth year.  And it has always gone well for me, just now in the busiest time, where our profit begins, this unfortunate war!"

     "You are married?"

     "I have a wife and four children in Danzig."

     "And don't you yourself have to go?"

     "I am considered permanently unfit, a bad heart-"

     "Think of the many who have to leave wife and child now and sacrifice their lives!"

     "You are right, Pastor.  It will be a difficult time, and it's a sin to think of one's self now!"

     Rucksack and coat were strapped on his back, a last greeting look once more over the cherished place, then it was off into the bright, sunny morning towards the home that now called urgently and in which he was more necessary than ever.

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     "Pastor!" it sounded behind him.  And when he turned around:  Nuscha in the fur-garnished jacket, which despite the heat that, burning and oppressive, had already set in, she had not taken off, the bold, greenish-gray felt hat on her head, the deep black hair protruding over her pale brownish forehead and both temples - exactly as he had seen her the first time.

     "You are also on the journey home," she said in that familiar amusing way, with which she had met him earlier, "and because we probably have the same route, you'll take me with you, right?  Yes, I want to be frank, I have already waited for you for quite a while on the bench there, I knew that you would come."

     "But your government?" he askt, a little uncertain.

     A sneering laugh.  "My government...!?"  She pressed her red lips firmly together, as he had quite often observed in her when she wanted to restrain a word.  "Last night he askt me to his room.  'A war with Germany is in the air,' he said.  'They will realize that as a higher Russian official I may not keep a German governess in my house.  So I release you from my service.  Because I want to meet my wife in Danzig, I have nothing against it if you want to leave immediately.  By tomorrow I will be ready to go alone with the children.'  He gave me the travel money and the rest of my salary, and I was dismissed."

     "And now - where do you want to go now?"

     "To Marlitten, high up in East Prussia, close to the Russian border.  My mother lives there, I told you about her, that after the

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death of my father she had stayed behind there alone.  So we'll travel quite a stretch up to Königsberg together.  And that's nice, it's not good to travel alone in this bad time."

     The sun burned hotter; Nuscha opened her jacket and took the felt hat off her forehead.  Her desire to talk appeared to have slackened, he didn't feel like having a conversation either.

     In front of them and behind them, people rushed and pressed, in endless flight, carriages and cars loaded high with luggage rattled and snarled along the street.  Finally, they had reached the train station.  But it was not possible to approach the ticket office, and the barriers were closed because the platform was already over crowded.  To go with one of the next trains was not a thought.

     He wanted to wait.

     "Definitely not," she said, "we will take a car to Danzig, whatever it costs.  I have enough money.  He has many bad qualities, but he is not stingy."

     It was impossible to get a car, they were glad when they, after long searching and asking, finally got hold of a one-horse carriage.  She promised the coachman a good tip if he would go as far as his horse could run.

     "We must try to get the D train to Königsberg, then we can both still be home this evening, you at 8 o'clock and I at 10 o'clock."

     She had the whole trip ready and knew every train, its departure and its arrival, everything down to the minute.  Only seldom did she check in the small timetable that she still constantly held in her hand.  "Still a little faster, coachman!

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Whatever happens, you must get the fast train, you should not regret it."

     A growing anxiety that could increase to feverishness was in her.  Then her cheeks glowed, and shining fires lit up in her eyes.  She was beautiful in such moments.

     "It has surprised us all. He knew that it would come, for a long time already.  He never spoke about it, but I markt it well.  But that it would burst out now, he has not thought of that.  He has made a mistake, the clever man, thoroughly mistaken!"

     "Mistaken?"

     She lookt at him, a brief fright ran over her face.  But only for a second, then she smiled, bright and maliciously.

     "Yes, mistaken!  In his speculation that he pursued more craftily than the slyest Jew.  But this time they have passed him by.  And it serves him right!"

     Now they were in Danzig, and there were only a few minutes left until the departure of the train.  With a feline speed, she had left the carriage, paid the coachman, and bought the tickets.  Immediately after they sat in an overcrowded compartment in second class, the train slowly left the train station.

     Hans stood at the window and lookt at the wall of people who waited on the different platforms for their trains.  At every stop that they passed through, the same image.

     She saw nothing of all of that.  Her head propped against the upholstery, she fixed her big eyes always on the same point, something dead was then in her gaze.  But even here on the railway,

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where she could change nothing, she had the same restlessness.

     "We are late," she said when the train stopt in Dirschau long after the prescribed time; "for you it doesn't matter so much, but I will no longer make the connection in Insterburg."

     "You are unrecognizable to-day," he said; "on our hikes in Zoppot you were a completely different person."

     "You are right," she replied, forcing herself into a smile, "I always suffer from railway fever.  It is a sickness from my childhood."

     Now she turned to brighter and better things.  "What could people possibly take us for?  Perhaps a young couple on honeymoon."

     "People won't rack their brains about it.  They have other things to think about now."

     She had not heard him.  "But no, you are much too serious and holy for that.  I told you already on the Adlershorst cliff:  you cannot be nice and affectionate at all, even if you wanted.  The poor woman whom you will later marry!"

     An impish feature flashed from her eyes and slipt from there down to her red lips that now possessed something seductive.

     The train was really late.  The rush to the single stop always became bigger, often it received a concentration that was barely manageable.  Everyone was on the way home.  The beautiful summer freshness  on the sea, in the country, in the woods had been abruptly terminated, most of the faces showed uneasiness and agitation.

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     Finally, they arrived in Königsberg.  Here it was disclosed to them that as a result of events that had not been intended, the train would be left there temporarily and that they, not being let off before the evening, could use another for the continuation of the journey.

     Nuscha was beside herself, complained about the railroad management that could not meet greater demands, and behaved like an unruly child.  But it didn't help her, she eventually realized it herself, laughed about her irritation, and soon recovered her cheerful mood with a good snack that she had in a Königsberg wine tavern.

     Although they arrived at the train station very early, the evening train was already crowded.  They walkt through the aisles, even here the people were crowded, it was barely possible to get through.  But Nuscha gave the conductor a tip, and he opened a compartment in first class for them.

     At first they were alone, then even this filled, eventually every seat was occupied, they even had to sit still closer together in order to give a sickly woman and her attendant the opportunity to sit down.

     The train started to move.  They had both of the corner seats at the window.  With the faint light that filled the compartment, he could not exactly make out the features of her face, but he noticed that every anxiety had left her.  In a feeling of cozy security, she leaned her head close to the upholster, now and then, her eye winkt to him between the thick silky eyelashes, then the lids sank deeper, she seemed to sleep.

     Around them was calm, the people sat

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sunk in their seats; now and then maybe one spoke with his neighbor, but usually in a subdued tone.  The sickly lady struggled with a coughing fit that she overcame with the help of her attendant.  Now one heard nothing but the regular, soporific rhythm of the pounding wheels.

     Outside was dark night up to the black windows.  Now and then flashed the lights of a station through which the train travelled.  Now a decrease in the breakneck hurry, the first stop.  Nuscha rubbed her eyes, she appeared really to have slept.

     "Still a short hour, and you will be in Rodenburg, then it won't be much longer and I too will be at home."

     Again the usual swarming and surging on the platform, the pushing and shoving on the walkways, then the train, which had already emptied a little, travelled farther into the night.

     Now Hans too wanted to try to rest for a little while.  The day and its uninterrupted travelling had been exhausting enough, he felt a leaden fatigue in his whole body.  But he had hardly stretcht out his feet and leaned back his head when - a strong jolt through the whole train, which suddenly stopt.

     A visible agitation spread through the travellers.  Some stood up, some walkt up to the door, the window, some called for the conductor.  What was the meaning of this?

     "They're looking for someone," Hans heard said in the next compartment, then it was quiet again.

     "Everyone stays in place!  No one leaves his compartment!  The corridors are to be kept free!"

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now sounded a piercing voice.  At the same time, one heard loud steps on the walkways and in fact from several sides.

     "Police officers!  They are going into every carriage," it sounded again from next door.

     "What could it be?" Hans askt Nuscha.

     She didn't answer, just shrugged her shoulders.

     In the same moment, the door was pushed open.  Two men stept into the compartment, one in the uniform of the police officers, the other in civilian clothing.  This one held in his hand a number of papers and a sheet that appeared to contain a photograph.  Quickly, his sharp gaze passed over the travellers.  At once it stopt at the window in front of the seat in which Nuscha sat.

     "Found," he said coldly and signalled to the uniformed officer.

     Full of horror, Hans had jumpt up.  He wanted to shout something to her, wanted to encourage her, to defend her - every word died on his tongue.

     Meanwhile the police officer had stept in and quick as lightning placed two handcuffs around her delicate elbows.  She let everything happen to herself, meekly almost, around her mouth a defiant feature was cut, and in her eyes, which turned to Hans with a half embarrassed, half derisive expression, lay something shifty.

     "Who is the man across from you?" askt the officer curtly and gruffly.

     "I don't know."

     "You got on the train in his company in Königsberg, already you've travelled together with him from Danzig on."

     She didn't answer.  The officer leafed through

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his papers and took out a second photograph of a man.

     "The picture is certainly not right," he said to the man in uniform, "but the man must likewise follow us."

     Hans tried to account for himself.  He gave his name, his position, he emphasized that it was a question of a casual travelling acquaintance who requested his protection on the journey, that he would be indispensable to his congregation, especially in this time, and that one mustn't delay him; he showed his pocket book in which were his tickets and several letters addressed to him, even an official one - it was all useless.

     "I cannot help you," the officer replied firmly and decidedly.  "If you are innocent, it will soon be proven.  We have no time for an investigation here, the train must go on."

     He gave a sign to the other one, who led the handcuffed Nuscha, who lookt forwards with an imperturbable eye and a cool smile, out of the compartment, he himself followed with Hans.

     "A Russian spy!"

     "The worst one!"

     "They've lookt for her a long time!"

     "They did their work in Zoppot, a whole nest that held its daily meetings in the casino.  I just came from Zoppot."

     "Only to-day has it come to light."

     "But they don't have the others yet."

     "They'll find them!"

     "Cursed lot!"

     So Hans heard whizzing around and whispered as slowly and half deafened by the disbelief that he witnessed, he walkt through the corridor by the side of his companion.