"Yes, Herr President."
Nordheim started at the sound of the voice, which aroused dim memories within him. He directed a keen glance towards the stranger, and, motioning to him to be seated, he went on:
"I suppose we shall not see him to-day? Have you a message from him?
Your name, if you please."
"Veit Gronau," was the reply, as the speaker calmly seated himself.
The president looked extremely surprised; he examined the weather-beaten features of his former friend, but the memories thus unexpectedly awakened seemed far from agreeable, and he was apparently not inclined to admit that there had ever existed any friendship between himself and his visitor. His manner distinctly indicated the inferior position which he chose to a.s.sign to his friend"s secretary.
"We are not, then, entire strangers to each other," he remarked. "I was acquainted in my youth with a Veit Gronau----"
"The same who has the honour of waiting upon you at present," Gronau concluded the sentence.
"It gives me pleasure to hear it." The pleasure was but coldly expressed. "And how have you thriven in the mean while? Well, it would seem, your position with Herr Waltenberg must be a very agreeable one."
"I have every reason to be contented. I have hardly reached your heights, Herr President, but one must not expect too much."
"True, true. Human destinies are very various."
"And when men undertake to control them, it all depends upon who can best steer his own boat."
The remark displeased the president as being too familiar; he desired no intimacy with his former comrade, so he said, evasively,--
"But we are straying from the object of your visit. Herr Waltenberg sends you to----?"
"No," Gronau replied, drily.
Nordheim looked at him in surprise: "You do not bring me a message from him?"
"No, Herr President. I have just returned from a journey, and have not yet seen Herr Waltenberg. I announced myself in my capacity of his secretary in order to make sure of your receiving me. I come about an affair of my own."
At this disclosure the president became several degrees colder and more formal, for he suspected some favour to be asked; yet the man seated so calmly before him, looking at him with so searching an expression in his clear, keen eyes, did not look like a suppliant; there was something of defiance in his bearing which impressed Nordheim disagreeably.
"Go on, then," he said, with perceptible condescension. "All relations between us are far in the past, nevertheless----"
"Yes, they date from five-and-twenty years ago," Gronau interrupted him. "And yet it is precisely of what then occurred that I wish to speak,--to pray you to inform me what has become of our--excuse me--of my former friend, Benno Reinsfeld?"
The question was so sudden and unexpected that Nordheim was silenced for a moment, but he was too entirely accustomed to self-control to be long disconcerted by such surprises. One suspicious glance he shot at his questioner, and then, with a shrug, he replied, coldly,--
"You really demand too much of my memory, Herr Gronau. I cannot possibly call to mind all the acquaintances of my youth, and in this instance I do not even remember the name you mention."
"Indeed? Then let me a.s.sist your memory, Herr President. I allude to the inventor of the first mountain-railway locomotive,--the engineer, Benno Reinsfeld."
The men looked each other in the eye, and instantly the president knew that there was nothing accidental in his visitor"s presence, that he was confronting a foe, and that the words which sounded so innocent barely disguised a menace. He must next know whether the man appearing thus after years of exile were really dangerous, or whether this were merely an attempt to extort money from his possible fears. Nordheim seemed inclined to the latter belief, for he said, frigidly, "You must be falsely informed, _I_ invented the first mountain-locomotive, as is shown by my patent."
Gronau suddenly rose, his dark face flushed still darker. He had devised a regular scheme of action, arranged in his mind how he should attack his opponent and drive him into a corner, until not a chance of escape was left him, but at such audacious falsehood all his prudent plans fell to pieces, and honest indignation got the upper hand of him.
"You dare to tell me that to my face!" he burst out, angrily. "To me, who was present when Benno showed us his invention, and explained it, and you admired it, and praised him! Does your memory play you false there also?"
The president calmly reached for the bell-rope: "Will you leave the house, Herr Gronau, or must I call the servants? I am not inclined to submit to insult beneath my own roof."
"I advise you to let the bell alone," Gronau burst forth, furiously.
"Take your choice, whether what I have to say shall be said to you alone, or to all the world. Refuse to listen,--I can find a hearing everywhere else."
The threat was not without effect; Nordheim slowly withdrew his hand.
He saw that it would not be easy to deal with this resolute, determined man, and that it would be best not to provoke him further, but his voice was still impa.s.sive as he said, "Well, then, what have you to say to me?"
Veit Gronau stepped up to his former comrade, and his eyes flashed: "That you are a scoundrel, Nordheim, neither more nor less!"
The president started, but in an instant burst out, "What! you dare?"
"Oh, yes; and I dare far more, for this is not a matter to be hushed up easily. Poor Benno, indeed, neither could nor would defend himself; he bowed his head beneath the stroke, and suffered more, I fancy, from the consciousness of the treachery of a friend than from the treachery itself. Had I been here at the time you would not have got off with your booty so easily. Don"t trouble yourself to look indignant. "Tis of no use with mc. I know you, and we are alone; no need for play-acting.
You had better make up your mind what answer to make when I accuse you in public."
In his excitement his voice rang out clear and distinct. Nordheim made no further attempt to check his words, but he must have felt quite secure, for he never for an instant lost his bearing of calm superiority.
"What answer to make?" he said, with a shrug. "Where are your proofs?"
Gronau laughed bitterly: "I thought you would ask that. Therefore I did not come instantly to you when I heard the sorry tale from poor Benno"s son in Oberstein. I have spent three weeks in following up traces. I have been in the capital, in Benno"s last place of residence,--even in the town where we were all three born."
"And are they found,--these proofs of yours?" The question was p.r.o.nounced in a tone of extreme contempt.
"No, nothing; that is, that could convict you. You insured yourself well against discovery, and Reinsfeld meanwhile delayed applying for a patent for his invention because he did not consider it yet complete.
That was the time when I left home and you accepted a position in the capital. Poor Benno worked away at his invention and perfected it, building many a castle in the air the while, until one fine day he heard that his invention had been bought and patented; but the patent and the money were both in the pocket of his best friend, of whom they made a millionaire."
"And this is the precious tale you mean to relate to the world?" the president sneered. "Do you actually believe that the a.s.sertion of an adventurer like yourself could ruin a man of my standing? Why, you yourself admit the absence of proof."
"Of all direct proof; but what I have learned is quite enough to make the ground hot beneath your feet. Reinsfeld himself made an effort to recover his rights; of course he was unsuccessful, although he found credence here and there. Then he lost courage and gave up all hope. But the matter was talked of; you were forced to defend yourself against suspicion, and now you have as an antagonist not poor, inexperienced Benno, but myself. Look to yourself in this encounter. I have sworn to indemnify the son of my friend as far as is possible for the wrong done to his father, and I am wont to keep my word, whether for good or for evil. As an "adventurer" I have nothing to lose, and I shall proceed against you ruthlessly and resolutely; I shall forge weapons against you out of all that I have lately learned, and shall publish to the world the suspicion, the knowledge of which was formerly confined to a very narrow circle. We shall see whether the truth can die away unheard when an honest man is ready to vindicate it with his very life."
There was an iron determination in his words and manner, and Nordheim was quite able to measure the power of this antagonist. He seemed engaged in a mental conflict for a minute or two, and then he asked, in a low tone, "What is your price?"
Gronau"s lip quivered with a contemptuous smile: "Ah, you are ready to barter, then?"
"It may come to that. I do not deny that such a scandal as you threaten to raise would be very disagreeable to me, although I am far from perceiving any danger in it. If you should propose reasonable conditions I might, perhaps, bring myself to make a sacrifice.
Therefore, what do you ask?"
"Very little for a man of your stamp. Pay to Benno"s son, young Dr.
Reinsfeld, the entire sum which you formerly received for the patent.
It is his lawful inheritance, and would be wealth to him in his present circ.u.mstances. Moreover, you must confess the truth to him,--privately, for all I care,--and give to the dead his due, at least in his son"s eyes. This done, I will answer for it that the matter shall be immediately dropped."
"Your first condition I accept," Nordheim replied, as though he were settling some business transaction, "but not the second. You must content yourselves with the money, which, indeed, will amount to a considerable sum. I suppose you will go shares in it."
"Is that your opinion?" Gronau asked, scornfully. "But how indeed should you know anything of honest, unselfish friendship? Benno Reinsfeld does not even know that I have come to you, or of the conditions I propose, and I shall have trouble enough, G.o.d knows, to induce him to accept what is lawfully his, and his only. I should consider it a disgrace to touch a penny of it. But enough of this. Will you accept both conditions?"
"No; only the first."
"I will retract nothing. I must have both the money and the confession."