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“‘Sometimes there are vagrants who get impudent,’ said Campe. ‘I’ve known them to attempt robbery; so we may as well be prepared.’

“Next day we took the dogs and guns and tried for some birds; at night we locked the place up like a prison. The days that followed were about the same; I never felt so thick a depression anywhere as there was in Schwartzberg. For hours no one would speak; our meals would go through like a funeral rite; sometimes I’d catch myself chewing my food to the tune of a dead march. After dinner we’d have a gloomy game of cards; at about ten we’d all go off to bed, one by one, and seem glad to do it.”

“Your first visit wasn’t pleasant,” said Ashton-Kirk.

“I got no fun out of it except the tramping around, and then only when I’d go off by myself. I’d have cleared out as soon as I’d sized matters up, but there were two things kept me back. First, I like young Campe, and I wanted to help him out; second, something was doing of a piquant nature, and I had a curiosity to know what it was.