388
THE PATRIOTEER
should awaken this spiritual joy in the countenance of old Buck?
Then he suddenly gave a start, as if he had met a stranger with a message of terror. He was frightened, and struggled for breath. Facing him, Diederich held himself even more stiffly, puffed out his chest with its black-white-and-red sash and its decorations, and glared, on general principles. Suddenly the old man's head dropped; he fell forward, right over, as though he had been broken. His family shrieked. In a horrified whisper the eldest son's wife cried: "He has seen something! He has seen the devil!" Judith Lauer got up slowly and shut the door. Diederich had vanished.
