Page:The genius - Carl Grosse tr Joseph Trapp 1796.djvu/24

through a maze of probabilities.to solve the questions, with which I had already for several weeks tormented myself. But the stranger staying away longer than he had promised, and the clock striking one without any more prospect of his coming, I began to grow fearful: the rattling of the half-mouldered crosses on the graves of the departed dead; the rustling of every leaf now made my hair stand an end. On the point of going away with impatience, the long expected stranger advanced on the church-yard-path. "Pardon me," cried he, "for having made you wait so long," He then took me by the hand, and led me to the chapel-gate. "Time is short," resumed he, "I have but little to tell you. A few years ago, I happened to get acquainted with a very singular man at Alcantara, who disappeared soon after from the inn in which we both lodged. In his haste, he left behind him a pocket book, which was brought to me, containing a number of letters partly unintelligible, partly insignificant in their purport. It also contained the key of an alphabet, by which I have