But there was no man there.
It was late now; I went down to the parlour for a bit, and there was
Grindhusen drinking with some of the gang. "There he is!" said one of
them, as I came in. It was Henrik who spoke; he was trying to get his
mates against me. Grindhusen, too, sided with the rest of them, and tried
all he could to annoy me.
Poor Grindhusen! He was stale-drunk all the time now, and couldn't get
clear of it. He had had another meeting with Engineer Lassen; they had
walked up the river as before and sat talking for an hour, and when
Grindhusen came back he showed a new two-Kroner piece he'd got. Then he
went on the drink again, and gabbled about being in the engineer's
confidence. This evening, too, he was all high-and-mightiness, not to be
outdone by anybody.
"Come in and sit down," he said to me.
But one or two of the other men demurred; they would have nothing to do
with me. And at this Grindhusen changed front; for sheer devilment he fell
to again about the engineer and his cousin, knowing it would annoy me.
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