They all talked at once; they were going to the fire. Daniel passed by unrecognised. The shrill voice of the painter Kropotkin pierced the air: "Hail to the flames! Hail to those whose coming we announce!" The laughter of the slough brothers died away in the distance.
Gertrude was standing at the head of the stairs with a candle in her hand; she had been waiting there since twelve o'clock. At eleven she had gone over to her father's house and rung the bell. Eleanore, frightened, had raised the window, and called down to her that Daniel had left her at nine.
He took the half-inanimate woman into the living room: "You must never wait for me, never," he said.
He opened the window, pointed to the glowing sky beyond the church, and as she leaned her head, with eyes closed, on his shoulder, he said with a scurrilous distortion of his face: "Behold! The fire! Hail to the flames! Hail to those whose coming we announce!"
The following morning Eleanore had no time to think of why Daniel had not gone home.
Jordan had just finished his breakfast when some one rang the door bell with unusual rapidity. Eleanore went to the door, and came back with Herr Zittel, who was in a rare state of excitement.
"I have come to inquire about your son, Jordan," he began, clearing his throat as though he were embarrassed.
"About my son?" replied Jordan astonished, "I thought you had given him three days' leave."
"I know nothing about that," replied Herr Zittel.
"Last Saturday evening he went on a visit to his friend Gerber in Bamberg to celebrate the founding of a club, or something of that sort; we are not expecting him until to-morrow. If you know nothing about this arrangement, Herr Diruf must have given him his leave."
The chief of the clerical department bit his lips. "Can you give me the address of this Herr Gerber?" he asked, "I should like to send him a telegram."
"For heaven's sake, what has happened, Herr Zittel?" cried Jordan, turning pale.
Herr Zittel stared into space with his gloomy, greenish eyes: "On Saturday afternoon Herr Diruf gave your son a cheque for three thousand seven hundred marks, and told him to cash it at the branch of the Bavarian Bank and bring the money to me. I was busy and did not go to the office in the afternoon. To-day, about a half-hour ago, Herr Diruf asked me whether I had received the money. It turned out that your son had not put in his appearance on Saturday, and since he has not shown up this morning either, you will readily see why we are so uneasy."