The Mysterious Stranger | Page 5

an enemy
and a very powerful one, the astrologer who lived in a tumbled old tower up the valley,
and put in his nights studying the stars. Every one knew he could foretell wars and
famines, though that was not so hard, for there was always a war, and generally a famine
somewhere. But he could also read any man's life through the stars in a big book he had,
and find lost property, and every one in the village except Father Peter stood in awe of
him. Even Father Adolf, who had defied the Devil, had a wholesome respect for the
astrologer when he came through our village wearing his tall, pointed hat and his long,
flowing robe with stars on it, carrying his big book, and a staff which was known to have
magic power. The bishop himself sometimes listened to the astrologer, it was said, for,
besides studying the stars and prophesying, the astrologer made a great show of piety,
which would impress the bishop, of course.
But Father Peter took no stock in the astrologer. He denounced him openly as a
charlatan--a fraud with no valuable knowledge of any kind, or powers beyond those of an
ordinary and rather inferior human being, which naturally made the astrologer hate Father
Peter and wish to ruin him. It was the astrologer, as we all believed, who originated the
story about Father Peter's shocking remark and carried it to the bishop. It was said that
Father Peter had made the remark to his niece, Marget, though Marget denied it and
implored the bishop to believe her and spare her old uncle from poverty and disgrace. But
the bishop wouldn't listen. He suspended Father Peter indefinitely, though he wouldn't go
so far as to excommunicate him on the evidence of only one witness; and now Father
Peter had been out a couple of years, and our other priest, Father Adolf, had his flock.
Those had been hard years for the old priest and Marget. They had been favorites, but of
course that changed when they came under the shadow of the bishop's frown. Many of
their friends fell away entirely, and the rest became cool and distant. Marget was a lovely
girl of eighteen when the trouble came, and she had the best head in the village, and the
most in it. She taught the harp, and earned all her clothes and pocket money by her own
industry. But her scholars fell off one by one now; she was forgotten when there were
dances and parties among the youth of the village; the young fellows stopped coming to
the house, all except Wilhelm Meidling--and he could have been spared; she and her
uncle were sad and forlorn in their neglect and disgrace, and the sunshine was gone out of
their lives. Matters went worse and worse, all through the two years. Clothes were
wearing out, bread was harder and harder to get. And now, at last, the very end was come.
Solomon Isaacs had lent all the money he was willing to put on the house, and gave
notice that to-morrow he would foreclose.

Chapter 2
Three of us boys were always together, and had been so from the cradle, being fond of
one another from the beginning, and this affection deepened as the years went
on--Nikolaus Bauman, son of the principal judge of the local court; Seppi Wohlmeyer,
son of the keeper of the principal inn, the "Golden Stag," which had a nice garden, with
shade trees reaching down to the riverside, and pleasure boats for hire; and I was the
third--Theodor Fischer, son of the church organist, who was also leader of the village
musicians, teacher of the violin, composer, tax-collector of the commune, sexton, and in
other ways a useful citizen, and respected by all. We knew the hills and the woods as well
as the birds knew them; for we were always roaming them when we had leisure--at least,
when we were not swimming or boating or fishing, or playing on the ice or sliding down
hill.
And we had the run of the castle park, and very few had that. It was because we were pets
of the oldest servingman in the castle--Felix Brandt; and often we went there, nights, to
hear him talk about old times and strange things, and to smoke with him (he taught us
that) and to drink coffee; for he had served in the wars, and was at the siege of Vienna;
and there, when the Turks were defeated and driven away, among the captured things
were bags of coffee, and the Turkish prisoners explained the character of it and how to
make a pleasant drink out of it, and now he always kept coffee by him, to drink himself
and