STEPAN RETURNS At daybreak the next morning Karl Steinmetz was awakened by the familiar cry of the wolf beneath his window.

He rose and dressed hastily.

The eastern sky was faintly pink; a rosy twilight moved among the pines.

He went down stairs and opened the little door at the back of the castle.
It was, of course, the starosta, shivering and bleached in the chilly dawn.
"They have watched my cottage, Excellency, all night.

It was only now that I could get away.