The Poor Plutocrats

nefarious business undetected for more than half a century. The science was an inheritance descending from father to son, people m

en plied successfully for more than fifty years under the very noses of the authorit

d from the royal ducats of the authorized minting towns, K?rm?cz and Gyulafehervár. If they fell into the hands of a goldsmith, and he melted them, he found that the

e receive coined money in exchange. Nevertheless, during some fifty years, only about six hundredweights were delivered annually at these places; the rest disappeared, though at first nobody could suspect it. The State pays to the diggers 441 guldens for every pound of gold dust, which quantity when coined is worth 720 guldens. But it occurred to the mountaineers that they also might

ore a lambskin mantle, on his head he carried a tall pointed cap, also of lambs' wool, drawn down over his eyebrows, his body was carelessly girdled with a golden girdle. His rich grey locks were plaited into two thick pig-tails which reached down to

eauty of her. And the picturesque Roumanian costume enhanced her charms. Her black hair, twisted into a double plait, was bound round with a flaming-red scarf, and on her head she wore a round hat, trimmed with pearls and garnished in front with a row of gold pieces which reached down to her marble-white forehead. Moreover, her fine cambric shirt embellished with bright flowers and gold ornaments fitted so closely as to betray the outlines of her

gushing forth from the black slate rock, he said to the

he full moon, like it is now. He then said

t home these two days. I saw h

nnot be," cried th

o you think I am d

he would have come

shrugged h

ore yesterday, about midnight, I found th

carried th

putty. And only we three know what that means. Fatia Negra would

ree days at home and nev

le month is a long while, long enough for the moon herself to change four

o the tremulous water-mirror which threw back a distorted likeness of her defiant face

with youth-like agility. "Black Face fears nobody, I tell you. He is not even afraid of the commandant of Gyulafehervár,

h ambled forward meditatively, whilst th

the devil, but I tell you that he would be afraid of t

u violently?" said the old man c

ore he

m? the

with you!

an chuckled-"litt

h now, the devil shall ha

er seen his face. If he were to tear the black velve

do as to that mask h

h-to be enamoured of a man wh

his voice, by the be

, I would insist on seeing his face. He

The moment he removes his mask from his face his power is gone, an

always escaped pursuit even when the whole country was out after him, and when they thought they had him fast

uld die of fright

e of fright-but

ery fine,-they

Have you ever tried to make him kiss the amulet on

-dragon, i

sed it and was

im to lay his three fing

s thereon and yet t

yer of condemnation

d it hundre

I maintain he i

n, I swear that he will very so

h they quitted the usual footpath and followed the bed of the stream. And a very good road it is for such as do not wish

to, had to cross. Finally, at a sudden declivity, the water took an unexpected leap of four yards, and when the riders reined up at this

sees it one cannot get at it. Secondly, because it is built exactly under the water-fall which drives the wheel as rapidly as a spindle, so that the millstone must needs be red hot beneath it. Thirdly, because the way to this mil

them into a little dry islet formed by the alders and tied them by their

ift up, Anic

sack across his shoulders, nor would one have supposed from the size of the sack that it would have been so heavy to lift or that it

lder to boulder followed behind the stooping old man along the narrow foot-path which led to the mill. In the doorway of the mill stood a youth clad in the usual coarse cloth "guba" and

timpu

t sort o

plin

Full

eting, more like an e

idst of which a dilapidated grinding machine was rev

g going on, Paul?"

e eno

own with t

he other, panting beneath the s

ight and eig

Turkish m

the

n connection with the millstone, hung in the hook of the millstone an iron chain which was wound round the beam and this done, laid the sack and its contents on the bolting-hu

he young journeyman, "was not

to-day or yesterday. It has been my

ee; he is not her

ere, I t

Face make himself invisible then? He co

d the old man, adjusting himself on

red entirely into a dark gulf, the chain unwinding and rattling after it. Suddenly from the depths below resounded the old man's voice: "Halt!" Then Paul stopped the mill, hung the chain in an iron ring and the machinery once more

tain stream which turned the mill and indeed was diverted thither by means of wooden pipes. Here, however, it flowed in its regular be

like the eternally watchful eyes of some underground worm, shone with a red glare which dazzled the eyes, w

ich made the very foundations of the rocks quiver. On the bridge stood another armed man with whom the new arrivals ex

I go in, you sit down on tha

e house as well?" enquir

gain if you can come in, and every time I tell you that cannot be.

others go i

en have no business in there, they are always so inquisitive, want

ot lik

he will divulge nothing that he sees. I myself shudder all over w

cried the girl defiantly. "I would

yone has to strip himself stark naked before he goes out, before t

n she could not submit to. She stamped her foot with rage and uttered again and again t

, and the same instant the iron door of the building

ly tore their caps from their he

urage to ask him? Not even Anicza. All she thought of at that moment was to rush forward, fall upon th

d man, "I'll answer for her, and she shall

tchman, "but let her at least take the

Mas

" cried the

ll swear to me a stronger oath even than t

r aloft, and, raising her lovely eyes-which reflected the infernal glare of the windows-aloft, towards the smoking canopy above her head, she swo

cz scratche

h useless things. It is just as if one of us were to hold

and my head is no cheaper than yours. Let

s himself from head to foot in other clothes and leave those he had brought with him outside. He would

om was for t

ws, in one corner of the room was a simple cylinder shaped iron furnace which radiated a burning heat, on

d close up to him. "Heretofore it required a whole apparatus of boilers and loads and loads of wood to bring it

e fire come from?"

earth, m

did not mean hell but that furnace whose powerful be

te the crucible. Then by means of an iron tap Fatia Negra turned the pipe of the crucible and immediately a pale glare began to spread through the room-the liquid gold ran in a thin jet out of the crucible and that was the cause of the l

you see, darling, that is how gold is melted." The girl smiled back at him; what a pity the Black

u in your sack?"

ight and eig

how much pure gold

th it is only a few

quality

completely you know. It is on

we will coin Prussia

re's the

ust that also to the machine. We shall g

deed. Domnule, since you became our chief our gains have doubled and the d

going round to hear them talk o

look at the new mach

bring the new

of money since it first came. The work is all

ey entered, and there they saw a gigantic machine at work between whose revolving cylinders depend

the gold plates thin enough and the edges were always too thick to our great l

aring a ragged sheepskin and yet considered ten th

one of the little

friend, the name

N

hard paper he lightly bent the gold plate round the girl's wrist and then pressed the ends of this improvised br

ould have said: "Is it lawful for you to give

e not away uncoined gold. Rather squander coined gold in heaps. The other is of

Fatia Negra; "it is on Anicza's a

he calculated rightly. This necklace weighed exactly

clipper, how every screw beneath the impulsion of the piston did its proper share of the work, and how the whole process was set goi

this with only our hammers and chisels! We sweated two whole days over a piece

My ma

ally moving elastic springs pushed the gold pieces forward one after the other, turned them round and jerked them away. You saw no other motive power bu

"What things they do inv

Fatia Negra whom all these speechless marvels served and obeyed. Fina

ply down and in a second it pressed the two round gold pieces laid in the steel matrix into the stamping dies, on one of which was the image of the Mother of God and on the other the cuirassed likeness of the reigning monarch. Immediately after the two matrices recoiled again of their own acco

y bread with little hillocks of seductive gold piled up all around them, gold of which everyone is enamoured

in and pitches the gold into a

. Anicza assenting, the workmen stepped aside, and Fatia Negra and the girl

t for the end of the bar to recover its normal position, but seizing the iron rod when it was only half way round, tore it back again, with the result that the steel clapper did not cast the gold piece be

wards Anicza and an

he, "you will spoil the machine

en to the ground and showed it with a smile to Anicza:

it curiously bet

ill happen

o the smelting

estroy it, g

d man fairly l

hands would saddle us with the vengeance of the whole government! Domnule, be not so mad as to let her ha

n her neckerchief, but will fasten it to a little bit of thread

right to look there, Domnule, for you have not yet spoken to th

shown in giving it to her, which was the surest token of his love. Then she drew forth a little Turkish dagger, bored a hole with it through the ducat

nce we have placed our heads in the girl's

actly how much pure gold Onucz had handed in to the coining department, how much it would be worth when

ier pay you what is due to y

ia Negra retired to a little adjoining chamber. There would be plenty of time for two

nturer's knee. "Do you know how long a month is to me? First quarter, new moon, full moon,

ew machines. That is a business

abroad?-Might you not

the questions that

y n

not in the habit

e a girl wa

disguise through seven kingdoms and casts down his eyes whenever he encounters a petticoat? Or that I cross myself and turn away whenever a woman looks at me? Or shall I tell you: in such and such a place I nipped the white cheeks of a pretty blonde, and in such an

y nor scold, for her mouth

at I am working, for love makes me sing and sing all day. I dream only of you. I care not what is going on in the whole world so long as I only know what is happening to you. I know that you love me and that you are mine so long as you are here

you no good to know where I am, for I am much more exposed t

bber chieftain, a

lot of

into your band"-she s

egra stampe

he; "think no more of it! I

girl and her eyes fla

u and that would be bad for us both. Remain

defaced ducat she had just rece

Negra, that I have sworn on this Crucified One here that if ever you betray me I will kill you in my fury without thinking twice

fore,

dian angel knows, I have told him, that with me the

r with kisses, and then old Onucz poked his gray shaggy head through

l's hair and face and whisp

r. "Domnule," said he, "would you not, if I earnestly besought you to do so,

replied in a calm but menacing voice: "If ever it occurs to you to put the qu

fine clear night, and Onucz told his daughter to ride in front. They had now divided the coined gold into two portions. When they had once more reached the ridge of the mountain the old man pronounced Anicza's name in a

of gold which Fatia Negra gave you. I'

ly answered: "You can spare yourself the trouble, I have already retu

d the old man, lowering his

at gleamed and shone over her bed both the damaged ducat and the little cross which she had given to Fatia Negra two ho

e hid both the amulets safely away in her bosom ag