or, The Silver Skates 261

XXXII
THE CRISIS

HILE the boys are nursing their fatigue, we will take
a peep into the Brinker cottage.

Can it be that Gretel and her mother have not stirred since
we saw them last? that the sick man upon the bed has not
even turned over? It was four days ago; and there is the
sad group just as it was before. No, not precisely the same ;
for Raff Brinker is paler: his fever is gone, though he knows
nothing of what is passing. “Then they were alone in the
bare, clean room. Now there is another group in an opposite
corner.

Dr. Boekman is there, talking in a low tone with a stout
young man, who listens intently. “The stout young man is
his student and assistant. Hans is there also. He stands near
the window, respectfully waiting until he shall be accosted.

“ You see, Vollenhoven,” said Dr. Boekman, “ it is a clear
case of —”’ and here the doctor went off into a queer jumble
of Latin and Dutch that I cannot conveniently translate.

After a while, as Vollenhoven looked at him rather blankly,
the learned man condescended to speak to him in simpler
phrase.

“Tt is probably like Rip Donderdunck’s case,” he explained
in a low, mumbling tone. ‘He fell from the top of Voppel-
ploot’s windmill. After the accident, the man was stupid,