lifting the leg of a black-cock to his mouth, would reply no more than a
rough, "All in good time, my lord."

Thus we had to wait; nor was it till the Brunswicker had cracked his last
nut with his strong teeth, and the evening cup had been brought round,
that he broke silence and told us in short, halting sentences how he had
sailed from Venice to Alexandria in the land of Egypt, and all that had
befallen his falcons. Then he stopped, as one who has ended his tale,
and Uhlwurm said in a deep voice, and with a sweep of his hand as though
to clear the crumbs from the table "Gone!"--And that "Gone" was well-nigh
the only word that ever I heard from the lips of that strange old man.
As he went on with his tale Kubbeling made free with the wine, and albeit
it had no more effect on him than clear water, still meseemed he talked
on for his own easement; only when he told how and where he had vainly
sought the banished Gotz he looked grievously at my aunt's face. And
Kunz, who had crossed the sea in the same ship with him, had helped him
in that search.

When I then asked him whether Kunz had not likewise come home with him to
Venice, and Kubbeling had answered me no, Uhlwurm said once more, or ever
his master had done speaking, "Gone!" in his deep, mournful voice, and
again swept away crumbs, as it might be, in the air. Hereupon so great a
fear fell upon me that meseemed a sharp steel bodkin was being thrust
into my heart; but Kubbeling had seen me turn pale, and he turned upon
Uhlwurm in high wrath, and to the end that I might take courage he cried:
"No, no, I say no. What does the old fool know about it! It is only by
reason that the galley tarried for Junker Schopper and weighed anchor
half a day later, that he forbodes ill. The delay was not needed. And
who can tell what young masters will be at? They get a fancy in their
green young heads, and it must be carried out whether or no. He swore to