He grunted doubtfully. "Ugh!" he said, "I can"t be certain to a mile or so. It may be twelve or fourteen."
"A good road?"
"Yes--a good road; but hilly. These Herren have only to keep straight forward. They cannot miss the way."
And so he drives off, and leaves us standing in the road. The moon is now rising behind a slope of dark trees--the air is chill--an owl close by utters its tremulous, melancholy cry. Place and hour considered, the prospect of twelve or fourteen miles of a strange road, in a strange country, is anything but exhilarating. We push on, however, briskly; and Bergheim, whose good spirits are invincible, whistles and chatters, and laughs away as gaily as if we were just starting on a brilliant May morning.
"I wonder if you were ever tired in your life!" I exclaim by and by, half peevishly.
"Tired!" he echoes. "Why, I am as tired at this moment as a dog; and would gladly lie down by the roadside, curl myself up under a tree, and sleep till morning. I wonder, by the way, what o"clock it is."
I pulled out my fusee-box, struck a light, and looked at my watch. It was only ten o"clock.
"We have been walking," said Bergheim, "about half an hour, and I don"t believe we have done two miles in the time. Well, it can"t go on uphill like this all the way!"
"Impossible," I replied. "Rotheskirche is on the level of the river. We must sooner or later begin descending towards the valley of the Neckar."
"I wish it might be sooner, then," laughed my companion, "for I had done a good twenty miles to-day before you overtook me."
"Well, perhaps we may come upon some place half way. If so, I vote that we put up for the night, and leave Rotheskirche till the morning."
"Ay, that would be capital!" said he. "If it wasn"t that I am as hungry as a wolf, I wouldn"t say no to the hut of a charcoal-burner to-night."
And now, plodding on more and more silently as our fatigue increased, we found the pine-forests gradually drawing nearer, till by and by they enclosed us on every side, and our road lay through the midst of them.
Here in the wood, all was dark--all was silent--not a breath stirred.
The moon was rising fast; but the shadows of the pines lay long and dense upon the road, with only a sharp silvery patch breaking through here and there. By and by we came upon a broad s.p.a.ce of clearing, dotted over with stacks of brushwood and great symmetrical piles of barked trunks. Then followed another tract of close forest. Then our road suddenly emerged into the full moonlight, and sometimes descending abruptly, sometimes keeping at a dead level for half a mile together, continued to skirt the forest on the left.
"I see a group of buildings down yonder," said Bergheim, pointing to a spot deep in the shadow of the hillside.
I could see nothing resembling buildings, but he stuck to his opinion.
"That they are buildings," he said, "I am positive. More I cannot tell by this uncertain light. It may be a mere cl.u.s.ter of cottages, or it may be a farmhouse, with stacks and sheds close by. I think it is the latter."
Animated by this hope, we now pushed on more rapidly. For some minutes our road carried us out of sight of the spot; but when we next saw it, a long, low, white-fronted house and some other smaller buildings were distinctly visible.
"A mountain farmstead, by all the G.o.ds of Olympus!" exclaimed Bergheim, joyously. "This is good fortune! And they are not gone to bed yet, either."
"How do you know that?" I asked.
"Because I saw a light."
"But suppose they do not wish to take us in?" I suggested.
"Suppose an impossibility! Who ever heard of inhospitality among our Black Forest folk?"
"Black Forest!" I repeated. "Do you call this the Black Forest?"
"Undoubtedly. All these wooded hills south of Heidelberg and the Odenwald are outlying spurs and patches of the old legendary Schwarzwald--now dwindling year by year. Hark! the dogs have found us out already!"
As he spoke, a dog barked loudly in the direction of the farm; and then another, and another. Bergheim answered them with a shout. Suddenly a bright light flashed across the darkness--flitted vaguely for a moment to and fro, and then came steadily towards us; resolving itself presently into a lanthorn carried by a man.
We hurried eagerly to meet him--at all, square-built, heavy-browed peasant, about forty years of age.
"Who goes there?" he said, holding the lanthorn high above his head, and shading his eyes with his hand.
"Travellers," replied my companion. "Travellers wanting food and shelter for the night."
The man looked at us for a moment in silence.
"You travel late," he said, at length.
"Ay--and we must have gone on still later, if we had not come upon your house. We were bound for Rotheskirche. Can you take us in."
"Yes," he said sullenly. "I suppose so. This way."
And, swinging the lanthorn as he went, he turned on his heel abruptly, and led the way back to the house.
"A boorish fellow enough!" said I, as we followed.
"Nay--a mere peasant!" replied Bergheim. "A mere peasant--rough, but kindly."
As we drew near the house, two large mastiff pups came rushing out from a yard somewhere at the back, and a huge, tawny dog chained up in an open shed close by, strained at his collar and yelled savagely.
"Down, Caspar! Down, Schwartz!" growled our conductor, with an oath.
And immediately the pups slunk back into the yard, and the dog in the shed dropped into a low snarl, eyeing us fiercely as we pa.s.sed.
The house-door opened straight upon a large, low, raftered kitchen, with a cavernous fire-place at the further end, flanked on each side by a high-backed settle. The settles, the long table in the middle of the room, the stools and chairs ranged round the walls, the heavy beams overhead, from which hung strings of dried herbs, ropes of onions, hams, and the like, were all of old, dark oak. The ceiling was black with the smoke of at least a century. An oak dresser laden with rough blue and grey ware and rows of metal-lidded drinking mugs; an old blunderbuss and a horn-handled riding-whip over the chimney-piece; a couple of hatchets, a spade, and a fishing-rod behind the door; and a Swiss clock in the corner, completed the furniture of the room. A couple of half-charred logs smouldered on the hearth. An oil-lamp flared upon the middle of the table, at one corner of which sat two men with a stone jug and a couple of beer-mugs between them, playing at cards, and a third man looking on.
The third man rose as we entered, and came forward. He was so like the one who had come out to meet us, that I saw at once they must be brothers.
"Two travellers," said our conductor, setting down his lanthorn, and shutting the door behind us.
The players laid down their greasy cards to stare at us. The second brother, a trifle more civil than the first, asked if we wished for anything before going to bed.
Bergheim unslung his wallet, flung himself wearily into a corner of the settle, and said:--
"Heavens and earth! yes. We are almost starving. We have been on the road all day, and have had no regular dinner. Is this a farmhouse or an inn?"
"Both."
"What have you in the house?"
"Ham--eggs--voorst--cheese--wine--beer--coffee."
"Then bring us the best you have, and plenty of it, and as fast as you can. We"ll begin on the voorst and a bottle of your best wine, while the ham and eggs are frying; and we"ll have the coffee to finish."
The man nodded; went to a door at the other end of the room--repeated the order to some one out of sight; and came back again, his hands in his pockets. The first brother, meanwhile, was lounging against the table, looking on at the players.
"It"s a long game," he said.