The Northern Light | Page 8

free."
"Are you a prisoner, then?" asked his friend. "You and your comrades
are out daily, are you not?"
"But never alone, never without supervision and control. We are always
and eternally in the service, even in recreation hours. O how I hate it,
this service, and the whole slavish life."
"But Hartmut, what if your father heard you?"
"Oh, then he would punish me again as he always does. He has nothing
else for me but force and punishment, all for my own good--that goes
without saying."
He threw himself full length on the grass, but hard as the words
sounded, there was a tremor in his tone which told of pain and passion.
The young heir only shook his head soberly while he put a new bait on
his hook and for a few minutes there was perfect silence.
Then suddenly something black swooped down like a flash of lightning
from the height above them into the water, and a second later rose
again in the air with the slippery, glittering prey in its beak.
"Bravo, that was a good catch!" cried Hartmut, rising. But Will spoke
angrily.
"The wretched robber robs our whole pond. I will speak to the forester
and tell him to fill him full of lead."
"A robber?" repeated Hartmut, as his glance followed the heron who
was just disappearing behind the high tree tops. "Yes, of course, but
how fine it must be to live such a free robber's life up there in the air.

To descend like a flash for your booty and be up and off again where
no one can follow; that's a hunt that pays."
"Hartmut, I verily believe you'd take pleasure in such a wild, lawless
life," said Willibald, with the repugnance of a well-trained boy for such
sentiments.
His companion laughed, but it was the same bitter laugh without the
joyousness of youth in its sound.
"Well, if I had any such desire, they'd take it out of me at the military
academy. There obedience and discipline is the Alpha and Omega of all
things. Will, have you never wished that you had wings?"
"I, wings?" asked Will, whose whole attention was again directed to his
bait. "How ridiculous! Who would wish for impossibilities?"
"I only wish I had them," cried Hartmut excitedly. "I would I were one
of the falcons from whom we take our name. Then I would mount
higher and always higher in the blue sky towards the sun, and never
come back again."
"I believe you're crazy," answered his listener good-naturedly. "Well, I
wont catch anything, if I sit here all day, for the fish wont bite. I must
move to another place."
With that he gathered up his fishing tackle and crossed to the other side
of the pond, while Hartmut threw himself on the ground again.
It was one of those autumn days which during the midday hours recall
thoughts of early spring. The sunshine was so golden, the air so mild,
the woods so fresh and odorous. Upon the glistening little lake danced
thousands of shining sparks, and the long grass whispered softly and
mysteriously to itself whenever a breath of wind passed over it.
Hartmut lay stretched out motionless on the grass as if listening to the
secrets it told to the autumnal wind. The wild passion and excitement
which flashed from his eyes when he spoke of the bird of prey had all

vanished. Now the eyes which looked into the heavens above were sad
and dreamy, and there rested in them an expression of ardent longing.
A light step, almost unheard on the soft ground, approached, and the
low bushes rustled as if against a silk garment. Then they parted and a
woman's figure appeared and stood looking intently at the young
dreamer.
"Hartmut!"
The boy started and sprang up instantly. He knew neither the voice nor
the apparition which stood before him, but saw it was a lady, and he
made her one of his courtly bows.
"Pardon, Madame--"
A slender, trembling hand was laid quickly and restrainingly on his
arm.
"Be quiet, not so loud; your companion might hear us, and I want to
speak to you, and to you alone, Hartmut."
She stepped back again into the thicket and motioned him to follow.
Hartmut hesitated a moment. How came this heavily-veiled and
richly-attired stranger into the lonely wood, and why did she speak so
familiarly to him whom she had never seen before? But the
mysteriousness of her behavior beginning to charm him, he followed.
She stood now in the shadow of the low trees, where she could not be
seen from the lake, and slowly threw back her veil. She was not very
young, a woman of more than thirty, but her face with its