Just last month Hochster helped me out with fifty gulden, which of course I repaid him on the first. That's why I'm so short right now. But a thousand gulden-a thousand!-I have absolutely no idea how I could get a hold of such a sum!"

"You really don't?" said Otto, looking him squarely in the eye.

"That's what I said."

"What about your uncle?"

"What uncle?"

"Your Uncle Robert."

"What-makes you think of him?"

"Why, it's obvious. He's helped you out on several occasions. And you have a regular allowance from him as well."

"There hasn't been an allowance for a long time now," answered Willi, annoyed by the inappropriate tone his former comrade had taken. "And not only is there no more allowance: Uncle Robert has become an eccentric. The truth is that I haven't set eyes on him for over a year now. And the last time I went to him for a little something-as a very special accommodation-well, he practically threw me out of the house."

"Hmm. Is that so?" Bogner rubbed his forehead. "So you really feel it's totally out of the question?"

"I hope you don't doubt my word," replied Wilhelm sharply.

Suddenly Bogner rose from the corner of the sofa, pushed the table aside, and went over to the window. "We have to try it anyway," he then said with certainty. "Yes, pardon me, but we must. The worst that can happen to you is that he'll say no. And maybe not too politely. But compared to what I'll have to face if I don't succeed in getting the few paltry gulden together by tomorrow morning, that's nothing but a little unpleasantness."

"Maybe," said Wilhelm, "but it would be an unpleasantness that would serve absolutely no purpose. If there were the slightest chancewell, I trust that you don't doubt my good intentions. But damn it, there must be other possibilities. For example-don't get angry, I just thought of it-what about your cousin Guido, the one who has the estate near Amstetten?"

"I assure you, Willi," Bogner replied calmly, "that there's no possibility of getting anything from him. If there were, I certainly wouldn't be here. In short, there's no person on the face of the earth-"

Willi suddenly lifted a finger, as if an idea had just struck him. Bogner looked at him expectantly.

"Rudi Hochster-what if you were to try him! Only a few months ago, as it happens, he received an inheritance. Twenty or twenty-five thousand gulden! He's got to have some of that left!"

Bogner wrinkled his brow, then replied with some hesitation, "Once, three weeks ago, when it wasn't half as urgent as it is now, I wrote to him, asking for much less than a thousand, and he never even answered me. So you see, there is just one possible solution-your uncle." And, as Willi shrugged his shoulders, he added, "After all, I know him, Willi-he's such a likable, charming old gentleman. We were at the theatre together several times, and at Riedhof's-he'll no doubt remember. For God's sake, he can't suddenly have become someone else!"

Willi interrupted him impatiently. "But it seems that he has! I don't know myself what's happened to him. But it's not uncommon for people between fifty and sixty to change in peculiar ways. I can't tell you any more than that-for at least fifteen months or more I haven't been in his house and-in short-I'll never under any circumstances enter it again."

Bogner stared ahead. Then suddenly he looked at Willi absentmindedly and said, "Well, sorry to have troubled you then. Goodbye." And, taking his hat, he turned to go.

"Otto," cried Willi, "wait! I have another idea."

"Another idea? Good!"

"Well, listen to me, Bogner.