A Fool and His Money | Page 8

at once," said I.
"We can't get on without them," protested he. "They know the ropes, so
to speak, and, what's more to the point, they know all the keys.

Yesterday I was nearly two hours in getting to the kitchen for a
conference with Mrs. Schmick about the market-men. In the first place,
I couldn't find the way, and in the second place all the doors are
locked."
"Please send Herr Schmick to me in the--in the--" I couldn't recall the
name of the administration chamber at the head of the grand staircase,
so I was compelled to say: "I'll see him here."
"If we lose them we also are lost," was his sententious declaration. I
believed him.
On the fifth day of our occupancy, Britton reported to me that he had
devised a plan by which we could utilise the tremendous horse-power
represented by the muscles of those lazy giants, Rudolph and Max. He
suggested that we rig up a huge windlass at the top of the incline, with
stout steel cables attached to a small car which could be hauled up the
cliff by a hitherto wasted human energy, and as readily lowered. It
sounded feasible and I instructed him to have the extraordinary railway
built, but to be sure that the safety device clutches in the cog wheels
were sound and trusty. It would prove to be an infinitely more graceful
mode of ascending the peak than riding up on the donkeys I had been
persuaded to buy, especially for Poopendyke and me, whose legs were
so long that when we sat in the saddles our knees either touched our
chins or were spread out so far that we resembled the Prussian
coat-of-arms.
[Illustration: I found myself staring as if stupefied at the white figure of
a woman who stood in the topmost balcony]
That evening, after the workmen had filed down the steep looking for
all the world like an evacuating army, I sought a few moments of peace
and quiet in the small balcony outside my bedroom windows. My room
was in the western wing of the castle, facing the river. The eastern wing
mounted even higher than the one in which we were living, and was
topped by the loftiest watch tower of them all. We had not attempted to
do any work over in that section as yet, for the simple reason that Herr
Schmick couldn't find the keys to the doors.

The sun was disappearing beyond the highlands and a cool, soft breeze
swept up through the valley. I leaned back in a comfortable chair that
Britton had selected for me, and puffed at my pipe, not quite sure that
my serenity was real or assumed. This was all costing me a pretty
penny. Was I, after all, parting with my money in the way prescribed
for fools? Was all this splendid antiquity worth the--
My reflections terminated sharply at that critical instant and I don't
believe I ever felt called upon after that to complete the inquiry.
I found myself staring as if stupefied at the white figure of a woman
who stood in the topmost balcony of the eastern wing, fully revealed by
the last glow of the sun and apparently as deep in dreams as I had been
the instant before.

CHAPTER II
I DEFEND MY PROPERTY
For ten minutes I stood there staring up at her, completely bewildered
and not a little shaken. My first thought had been of ghosts, but it was
almost instantly dispelled by a significant action on the part of the
suspected wraith. She turned to whistle over her shoulder, and to snap
her fingers peremptorily, and then she stooped and picked up a rather
lusty chow dog which promptly barked at me across the intervening
space, having discovered me almost at once although I was many rods
away and quite snugly ensconced among the shadows. The lady in
white muzzled him with her hand and I could almost imagine I heard
her reproving whispers. After a few minutes, she apparently forgot the
dog and lifted her hand to adjust something in her hair. He again barked
at me, quite ferociously for a chow. This time it was quite plain to her
that he was not barking at the now shadowy moon. She peered over the
stone balustrade and an instant later disappeared from view through the
high, narrow window.
Vastly exercised, I set out in quest of Herr Schmick, martialing

Poopendyke as I went along, realising that I would have to depend on
his German, which was less halting than mine and therefore, more
likely to dovetail with that of the Schmicks, neither of whom spoke
German because they loved it but because they had to,--being Austrians.
We found the four Schmicks in the