I
leapt out of the carriage, bidding the man wait, and at once
started in pursuit of my former servant. I heard the coachman
laugh: he thought, no doubt, that anxiety for the missing bag
inspired such eager haste.
The numbers of the houses in the Konigstrasse begin, as anybody
familiar with Strelsau will remember, at the end adjoining the
station. The street being a long one, intersecting almost the
entire length of the old town, I was, when I set out after Bauer,
opposite number 300 or thereabouts, and distant nearly
three-quarters of a mile from that important number nineteen,
towards which Bauer was hurrying like a rabbit to its burrow. I
knew nothing and thought nothing of where he was going; to me
nineteen was no more than eighteen or twenty; my only desire was
to overtake him. I had no clear idea of what I meant to do when I
caught him, but I had some hazy notion of intimidating him into
giving up his secret by the threat of an accusation of theft. In
fact, he had stolen my bag. After him I went; and he knew that I
was after him. I saw him turn his face over his shoulder, and
then bustle on faster. Neither of us, pursued or pursuer, dared
quite to run; as it was, our eager strides and our carelessness
of collisions created more than enough attention.
Pages:
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128