Nordheim was unable to speak, and the effort he had made exhausted him; again he became unconscious. The young physician examined with all possible gentleness the injury in the breast, and then turned with a very grave face to Waltenberg and Elmhorst.
"You have no hope?" the latter asked, in an undertone.
"No, nothing can avail here. We must try to get him home; he may reach the house alive if he is carried with extreme caution. Fräulein von Thurgau, will you kindly go first and prepare his daughter, that the shock may not be too great? We must not conceal from her that her father is dying; he cannot possibly live until to-morrow."
Then he gave the necessary directions. A litter was hastily constructed, and the wounded man was laid upon it with infinite care. Stout arms were ready to aid, and the sad procession slowly took its way towards the villa. Erna preceded it, and Reinsfeld, promising to follow immediately, turned his attention to the other wounded men who required his skill, although none of them were mortally injured.
"Waltenberg too stayed behind. He paused, hesitating and seeming engaged in an inward struggle, but when he saw the engineer-in-chief walk towards the Wolkenstein chasm he followed, and overtook him.
Wolfgang turned; his face was unnaturally calm, and there was a hard ring in his voice as he said, "You come to remind me of my promise? I am at your service at any hour; my duties are at an end."
Ernst had entertained no such intention; he made a gesture of dissent: "I think neither of us is in the mood to pursue our quarrel at present. I am sure that you, at least, are not fit for it."
Elmhorst passed his hand across his brow; now when the terrible tension of his nerves had relaxed he first perceived how utterly exhausted he was.
"You are probably right," he said, with the same rigid, unnatural look. "It comes from overwork. I have not slept for three nights; but a couple of hours' rest will restore me entirely, and, as I said, I am at your service."
Ernst silently gazed into the face of the man who had just lost his all; this forced calm did not mislead him. A reply was upon his lips, but he suppressed it, and his glance wandered to the spot where he had been thrown down in his flight. Just there one of the columns had fallen, and the iron part of it was buried deep in the earth. There he would have lain crushed and mangled but for the hand which had rescued him from destruction; perhaps he was not as unconscious as he seemed of whose the hand was.