Biberli handed the knight a little bag containing this sum, and when
Heinz asked in perplexity where he obtained it, the ex-schoolmaster
answered gaily: "They came just in the nick of time. I received them
from Suss, the jockey, while you were out riding this afternoon."

"For the black?" Heinz enquired.

"Certainly, my lord. It's a pity about the splendid stallion. But,
as you know, he has the staggers, and when I struck him on the coronet
he stood as if rooted to the earth, and the equerry, who was there, said
that the disease was proved. So the Jew silently submitted, let the
horse be led away, and paid back what we gave him. Fifty heavy florins!
More than enough for a beginning. If I may advise you, count on the two
and the five when fixed numbers are to be thrown or hit. Why? Because
you must turn your ill luck in love to advantage: and those from whom it
comes are the two beautiful Ortlieb Es, as Nuremberg folk call the ladies
Els and Eva. That makes the two. But E is the fifth letter in the
alphabet, so I should choose the five. If Biberli did not put things
together shrewdly--"

"He would be as oversharp as he has often been already," Heinz
interrupted, but he patted Biberli's wet arm as he spoke, and added
kindly "Yet every day proves that my Biberli is a true and steadfast
fellow; but where in the wide world did you, a schoolmaster, gain
instruction in the art of throwing the dice?"

"While we were studying in Paris, with my dead foster brother," replied
the servant with evident emotion. "But now go up, my lord, before the
fire alarm, and I know not what else, makes the people upstairs separate.
The iron must be forged during this wild night. Only a few drops of rain