now come out. He waited in silence, secretly thrilled at the thought of what would happen to Authority, if somebody uncovered the scandal. He could not have said what he really wished. As nothing happened, he stood up, very straight, and protested, without exaggerated effort, against the insinuation which he had once already publicly refuted. The other side, on the contrary, had not invalidated in the least the charges of irregularity which had been brought against them. "Don't you worry," replied Heuteufel, "You will soon be satisfied. A complaint has already been lodged."
This, at least, caused a sensation, but the impression was weakened when Heuteufel admitted that his friend Buck had taken action, not against Councillor Hessling, but merely against the socialist paper. "Hessling knows too much," people said—and after Wulckow, who was made honorary chairman, Diederich was appointed chairman of the Monument Committee. In the Council these decisions received the warmest support from Mayor Scheff elweis ; they were passed in the noticeable absence of old Buck. If he himself did not think more of his own cause! Heuteufel said: "Is he to look on in person at dirty work which he cannot prevent?" This merely harmed Heuteufel himself. As old Buck in recent times had suffered two defeats, it was expected that his action against the newspaper would be the third. The statements which had to be made in court were adapted by every one in advance to fit the given circumstances. Of course, Hessling had gone too far, the more reasonable people said. Old Buck, who was long known to them all, was not a swindler and a cheat. He may have been guilty of imprudence, especially now, when he was paying his brother's debts, and was himself up to his neck in debt. Did he really go with Cohn to Klüsing about the site? It was a good stroke of business—only it should not have been found out. And why should Kühlernann die exactly at the moment when he ought to have declared his friend's innocence? Such bad luck was not without cause. Herr Tietz,
