"I was thinking of you last night, Hullin," cried Marc, coming out of his den, "and if you hadn't come I should have gone all the way to the saw-mill to meet you. Sit down. Hexe-Baizel, give Hullin a chair."
He himself sat upon the wide hearth, with his back to the fire, opposite the open door, around which blew the winds of Alsace and of Switzerland.
The view through the narrow opening was magnificent--a rock-framed picture, but how grand a one! There lay the whole valley of the Rhine, and beyond the mountains melting into mist. The air, too, was so fresh and pure, and when the blue expanse without tired the eyes, the little fire within, with its red, dancing flames, was there to relieve them.
"Marc," said Hullin, after a moment's silence, "can I speak before your wife?"
"It is the same as speaking to me alone."
"Well. I have come to buy powder and lead of you."
"To shoot hares, I suppose," returned the smuggler, half-closing his eye and gazing keenly at Jean-Claude.
"No; to fight the Germans and the Russians."
"I can furnish three thousand francs' worth to-day," said the smuggler.
"And as much more in a week," continued Marc calmly, still gazing steadily at his friend.
"You will take it!" cried Hexe-Baizel--"you will take it! I believe you, but who will pay for it?"
"Hullin will take it; his word is enough."
Then, stretching out his broad hand to the sabot-maker, he exclaimed:
"Jean-Claude, here is my hand! The powder and lead are yours; but I wish to stand my share of the expense. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Marc, but I intend to pay at once."
"He will pay himself," cried Hexe-Baizel. "Do you hear?"
"Am I deaf? Baizel, go fetch us a bottle of _Brimbelle-wasser_ to warm us. What Hullin tells me fills me with joy. Those beggarly _Kaiserliks_ won't have things go as easily as they imagine. Our people will defend themselves, and well!"
"And there are those among them who will pay for what is needed."
"Catherine Lefevre will pay, and it is she who sends me here," said Hullin.
Then Marc arose, and, extending his hand toward the precipice, exclaimed:
"She is a woman among a thousand. Her soul is as great as yonder rock, Oxenstein. Never saw I a grander. I drink to her health. Drink too, Jean-Claude."
