"For this you have my friend's word," the colonel remarked.
"The word of honour of the Herr Freiherr von Hohenwald will suffice me," the police official rejoined.
"My simple assertion must suffice you, sir," the old man burst forth again.
The Geheimrath looked keenly at him for a moment, and then said, with a courteous bow, "It is the word of a man of honour, and therefore a word of honour; it suffices entirely. May I now beg the Herr Baron to allow me to proceed in my search of the castle?"
"For the present, then, Herr Baron, I take my leave, only requesting that the colonel will accord me the assistance of his adjutant in my search, if he would himself prefer remaining here with his old friend, I hope shortly to be able to report to you the result of what I feel convinced will be a fruitless investigation."
This proposal was most welcome to the colonel, who rejoiced to pass the time with his friend instead of assisting in searching the castle, a duty that would have been extremely repugnant to the old soldier. He therefore acceded to all the Geheimrath said, and Steuber left the room.
Outside, his first care was to despatch his assistant upon a fleet horse, taken from one of the dragoons, to intercept the flight of the Finanzrath and Repuin, giving the man the most minute directions as to how this was to be done, and how he should procure the assistance necessary to his success in so doing.
Then he turned to old Franz, over whom two dragoons had mounted guard, and demanded his guidance over the castle. Poor Franz was so completely subdued by the martial array about him, and above all so terrified by the glance of the eyes behind the spectacles, that he obeyed with submissive promptitude. Encountering in the hall Count Styrum, who had just concluded the posting of his dragoons, Steuber detained him as he was about to pass on to the garden-room, and said, "May I pray you to follow me, Herr Count? The colonel has permitted me to demand your assistance in the search I am about to begin."
Styrum would gladly have refused to fulfil so disagreeable a duty; his pride rebelled against assisting in a search in his friend's house, but the Geheimrath, who suspected what was in his mind, soothed his wounded sense of honour by adding, "I do not ask you, Count, to take any part in this search, which indeed I now believe will be entirely fruitless. The aid I need, and which your superior officer permits me to require at your hands, consists simply in your presence as a witness during my search. Thus you are a substitute, as it were, for your friend Baron Arno von Hohenwald, to whom you may be able to render essential service. May I look for your kind compliance with my wish?"