with no man; but one need indeed be a saint to keep one's temper
when one is kept standing outside a door with the rain coming
down in great drops, and threatening in another minute to come in
bucketfuls. It is all the worse when, as you see, one has a sick
comrade with one."

The man spoke in a low voice to the three others seated at the
table with him. "May I ask whither you were journeying when thus
caught in the storm?" he asked in a more civil tone than he had
hitherto used.

"Certainly you may. We were in haste to get on to Gunzenhausen by
morning, as a friend of ours has work ready for us there. We did
not expect this storm when we left Eichstadt just before the gates
closed, and as the nights are short we thought we would push
straight through."

"You are woodmen, I see."

"Ay, woodmen and charcoal burners."

"You are not from this part, at least, judging from your tongue."

"Nor, I fancy, are you," Hector replied.

"No," the other said. "In times like these every one is liable
to be driven from home either because the troops of one army or
another have plundered and destroyed everything, or perhaps because
he has been forced into the ranks."