me with a high and solemn oath that he would not rest till he had found
some trace of his brother, and if he kept the galleon waiting for that
reason, what wonder? Is it aught to marvel at? And you, Mistress
Margery, have of a surety known here in the Forest whither a false scent
may lead.--Junker Kunz! Whither he may have gone to seek his brother,
who can tell? Not I, and much less Uhlwurm. And young folks flutter
hither and thither like an untrained falcon; and if Master Kunz, who is
so much graver and wiser than others of his green youth, finds no one to
open his eyes, then he may--I do not say for certain, but peradventure,
for why should I frighten you all?--he may, I say, hunt high and low to
all eternity. The late Junker Herdegen. . . ."

And again I felt that sharp pang through my heart, and I cried in the
anguish of my soul: "The late Junker--late Junker, did you say? How came
you to use such a word? By all you hold sacred, Kubbeling, torture me no
more. Confess all you know concerning my elder brother!"

This I cried out with a quaking voice, but all too soon was I speechless
again, for once more that dreadful "Gone!" fell upon my ear from
Uhlwurm's lips.

I hid my face in my hands, and sitting thus in darkness, I heard the
bird-dealer, in real grief now, repeat Uhlwurm's word of ill-omen:
"Gone." Yet he presently added in a tone of comfort: "But only
perchance--not for certain, Mistress Margery."

Albeit he was now willing to tell more, he was stopped in the very act.
Neither he nor I had seen that some one had silently entered the hall
with my Uncle Christian and Master Ulsenius, had come close to us, and
had heard Uhlwurm's and Kubbeling's last words. This was Ann; and, as