already tired of running, are you?”

The words were uttered in a stern, sharp voice, only artificially softened by a friendliness both labored and unfamiliar.

With feelings of mingled fear and joy Lucas looked up into the arrogant face peering down on him. He tried to reply, to utter a greeting, but was aware that every effort at expression made by his will merely ran down his back. He tried to be friendly and to smile, but even these desires ran down his back and became active somewhere there. Springing aside, he turned his head. Behind him he felt something unfamiliar moving, signifying his answer, his greeting and his smile. Lo and behold! he discovered that he was wagging his tail!

“He can lie on the floor inside if he’s tired,” he heard the Archduke say, close above his head, addressing a gentleman sitting opposite him, his back to the horses; “after all, he can’t be expected to run the whole of the journey.” And, without waiting for an answer, he again leaned out, threw the door wide open, and called out: “Well, Cambyses—jump up!”

I shall never be able to do that! thought Lucas, dropping his shoulders and scratching the dust with his forepaws, as he measured the height of the coach. He wanted to thank the Archduke effusively and beg him to wait a moment. As he did so, he noticed that his tail was wagging more and more violently.

“Come along, jump up!” The Archduke’s tone was sharper. The words seemed to lift Lucas from the ground and hurl him up. He jumped, feeling as light as a feather, and in a trice was standing on the mat of the coach. The door closed with a bang.

“Lie down!”

Lucas collapsed at the feet of his master as though he had been struck by lightning. Before him he could see only the dainty little shoes, with their glittering diamond buckles and red heels that shone like blood, while his nose could scent the delicate aromas exhaled by the Archduke’s silk stockings, his furs and his clothes.

Swaying gently from side to side, the coach drove on. He could hear the dull rolling of the wheels, the snorting of the horses, and the faint jumble of murmuring voices.

After a while he raised himself up cautiously and sat on his haunches, examining the Archduke more closely with eager curiosity. He saw his thin proud face, his pallid cheeks, his large bright eyes, gazing apathetically and superciliously into the distance, his hard mouth, always slightly open beneath his long refined nose, and his lower lip protruding as if in disdain. The listless face, with its expression of imperious and unquestioned authority, filled him with astonishment and fascinated him as an altogether new phenomenon.

By way of comparison he cast a swift glance at the man on the seat opposite. He had a round, contented face, of a type sufficiently common, somewhat somnolent and at the same time alert, ever on the qui vive for a sudden word of command. Quickly Lucas turned to look at the Archduke again.

“What do you want now, Cambyses?”

Lucas felt his body quiver at the sound of this voice. But he continued to study his master’s face with passionate, searching curiosity.

For a moment or two the pair of them, the man and the dog, remained looking into each other’s eyes. Then suddenly the smile that touched the Archduke’s lips vanished, his face clouded over, and a faint trace of embarrassment suffused his pale cheeks.

“Stop that, Cambyses! Don’t stare like that!” Heaving a sigh he fell back in his seat. “Strange,” he observed to the gentleman-in-waiting opposite him, who leaned forward eagerly to catch his words, “strange how a dog like that sometimes has a look that is quite human . . . as if he wanted to say something. . . . I don’t mean to be rude, Waltersburg, but just then Cambyses looked more intelligent than you do.”

• • •

At midnight Lucas woke up with a start. Gradually he became aware that he was lying on the ground, covered in straw. A moist heat, soft as a blanket, enveloped him and with every breath he inhaled the pungent smell of sweating horses. He could hear the jangling of chains, and snorting and bellowing; the occasional stamp of hooves fell vaguely on his ears. Timidly he raised his head. Close beside him stood an animal which, seen from below in the dim ruddy glow of a lantern, seemed to loom up like a giant. Lucas sprang to his feet in horror. He was in a stable! Close beside him the magnifi­cent white horse at whose feet he had been sleeping began to stir, and then he saw all the six great white horses that had drawn the Archduke’s coach on the previous day. There they stood side by side, separated only by low partitions.