in your face. You are concealing something from me! You--oh, heaven, you
have news of Kolbielsky."

She started up, letting the bank-notes fall unheeded to the floor, seized
her father's arm with both hands, and gazed silently at him with panting
breath.

He avoided her eyes, released himself almost violently from her grasp,
stooped, picked up the bills and divided them into halves, putting five
into his breast pocket, and giving his daughter the other five.

"Take it, my Leonore; take the magic key which will open Paradise to you!"

She took the bank-notes and, with a contemptuous gesture, flung them on the
floor.

"You know something of Kolbielsky," she repeated. "Where is he? Answer me,
father, if you don't wish me to fall dead at your feet."

"Yet if I do answer, poor child, what will it avail you? He is lost, you
cannot save him."

She neither shrieked nor wept, she only grasped her father's arm more
firmly and looked him steadily in the face.

"Where is Kolbielsky?" she asked. "Answer, or I will kill myself."

"Well, Leonore, I will give you a proof of my infinite love. I will tell
you the truth, the whole truth. When the prisoners were dragged out of the
hut, one of them suddenly made an attempt to escape. The soldier tried to