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The watch, slipping from the clock-mender's hand, spun like a coin on the counter, while the clock-ht be said, staggered back upon his stool

"So this is the end?" he said in a kind of mutter

"The end of what?" demanded the owner of the watch

"Of all my labors, to me and to what little I have left!"

"Fiddlesticks! I a you, my comrade So far as I am concerned, your secret is as dead as it ever was I had a fancy that you were living in Paris"

"Paris! Gott! For seventeen, eighteen years I have traveled hither and thither, always on some false clue Never a band of Gipsies I heard of that I did not seek theone through, and uselessly, to prove my innocence It always comes back in a circle; what benefit to me would have been a crih in honor? Was I not wealthy? Was not rowing fierceness in his voice and gestures "Alla these clocks!"

"But why the clocks?" in wonder

"It was a pasti all the clocks in the house So I bought out this old shop From tirand duke has a wonderful Friesian clock One day it fell out of order, and the court jeweler could do nothing with it I was sued so I mended the clock and went away"

"But what is the use of all this, now that her highness is found?"

"My honor; to the duke it is black as ever"

"Have you gone forward any?"

"Like Sisyphus! I had begun to give up hope, when the Gipsy I was seeking was seen by one of , waiting But you believe, Ludwig?"

"Carl, you are as innocent of it all as I aendheit"

"No, Ludwig, this is my country, however unjustly it has treated rand duke were co! But if your Gipsy fails you?"

"Still I shall remain This will be all I shall have, these clocks I ahty I no longer gaze into otten how I look There were letters found in eries, I knew, but so cleverly done I could only deny I saw that my case was hopeless, so I fled to Paris I wrote Herbeck once while there He believed that I was innocent I have his letter yet He has a great heart, Ludwig, and he has done splendid work for Ehrenstein"