“What is that?” she asked Mabuse, who was standing near, planted firmly on the deck with his back to the engine and appearing entirely at ease. He could be clearly seen in the searchlight with his hand on the gunwale, listening intently.
“Nothing!” he hissed; “be quiet!”
“What is it?” she asked again in a sharper tone, and there was something in the sound of her voice that had not been heard for a long time. It seemed as if a stone that had long lain at her heart were now being dissolved into a mass of pulp. To this feeling, still but half-conscious, she yielded herself more and more. By degrees she appeared to realize what was happening within her. Then, rising and standing in front of Mabuse, she suddenly cried out, “Now, at last. …”
The sounds of the water and the night stole over her like a joy beyond bound or measure. Eagerly she absorbed with heart and mind the light, sweet rustle they made, and she perceived that every moment they became more pronounced. At last she understood. The pursuer was advancing rapidly upon them, and came ever nearer. …
“What do you mean by that ‘at last’?” asked Mabuse roughly. “Sit down and keep quiet!”
“What is that sound we hear?” she said in a ringing voice.
“Death—perhaps!” answered Mabuse calmly.
“For you!” cried the woman facing him, above the swirling of the waters. “I shall be able to shake you off at last. I shall be saved from you. The werwolf will be caught, and your power over me and over others be at an end!”
“I will soon show you that,” said Mabuse, advancing and bending over her; and then what happened came so quickly that she could scarcely distinguish the movements.
“George!” called Mabuse, the one word only, and then he unfastened the police uniform which concealed his clothing and threw it towards George, who at once donned it and stood near the Countess, exposing himself to the searchlight, while Mabuse took his place at the wheel.
They heard a shout close to them. “Halt!” cried a voice from out the sounds her eager ears had been absorbing. “Halt!” A shot whizzed in the air, and an echo resounded.
George fired in return. The boat gave an upward lurch and then suddenly two high dams enclosed it. Where was the lake? Where was the wide expanse of night? There was a rustling sound, and a beating against the spring tides of the Rhine. The searchlight had disappeared, and a soft, warm mist covered the stream and the dams. They were smooth as railway lines, and a bridge lay diagonally above them. The throbbing of the engine resounded from its arched vault.
Then a sudden movement flung the Countess to the ground. The boat sprang up into the air with a loud report, but the woman was caught as she fell; she could feel herself lifted; someone held her, and ran swiftly with her; her cries were stifled, and a red mist swam before her eyes.
George lay on the shore, one arm broken. With the sound one he felt for the police helmet and crammed it down on his head. The fall had stunned him slightly, but he could have escaped; nevertheless, he lay still.
It was not long before he saw two revolvers levelled at him. Two electric torches glared before his eyes. “We’ve got the one in uniform!” said a voice. George kept quite quiet. He was carried from the land into a boat and fettered to a thwart. The engine started, and the boat drove across the lake back to Schachen.
The day was dawning when George reached the wooden landing-stage once more. They took him into the villa and locked him into a room with barred windows, out of which he could not escape, even had two men not been in charge of him.
The inspector said to himself, “Thank God, we have caught him at last, and in his police uniform too! thank God!”
At five o’clock that morning Wenk left Munich in a hydroplane, landing two hours later at Schachen. He flew up the stairs of the Villa Elise to reach the room where the imprisoned robber-king was waiting … waiting for him, the conqueror!
“Here is Dr. Mabuse,” called out the inspector, advancing towards him. “We have him safe at last, thank God!”
Wenk, jubilant, victorious, and intoxicated with success, entered the room and saw the man in police uniform fast bound to his chair.
“Where is he?” he asked.
“There … on that chair!”
Wenk looked at the man more closely. He knew it already: his quarry had escaped! Back into the endless, the dark and empty night, everything fell once more, and at first he could neither hear nor speak a word.
Suddenly the inspector said, “But that is Poldringer, the man we’ve been watching all these weeks!”
“Yes, that is Poldringer,” answered Wenk heavily. Mabuse had escaped.
XIX
Mabuse hastily carried the insensible woman from the bank of the Rhine channel to the nearest house. It was that of an osier-binder.
“We have had an accident,” said Mabuse, and then seated himself at the window to watch the approach.
When an hour had gone by thus, and the Countess opened her eyes again, Mabuse noticed that she started on recognizing him and turned away, overcome with dread. He went hastily towards her and, stooping down, he whispered, “We are saved! We are irrevocably bound together!”
The whispered words impressed her with a certain sense of comfort and security. She no longer withstood him, and soon sat up, the peasant’s wife promising to look after her.
Mabuse sought for the nearest village on the map. Then he went thither, in security, knowing that he was not being followed. George had remained as the victim of the pursuer’s vengeance, and he was saved. The other’s fate was due
