“Just a minute,” said Peter. “Haven’t I won the contest, Herr Stanger?”

“You have,” said the referee.

“So I’m Chief Ranger of the Forest?”

“That’s right,” said Herr Stanger, nodding briskly.

“So what?” said Sergeant Snitsch.

“So he’s a free man, that’s what,” said Herr Stanger loudly, “since only a free man can be Chief Ranger of the Forest!”

And if the first cheer was loud, this was louder still. Hannerl was jumping up and down, Ma was wringing her hands and trying to clap them at the same time, Lucy and Charlotte were cheering, and I thought the awning was going to fall again through being shaken loose by the noise. Peter stepped up and shook the Mayor’s hand and was presented with a scroll and a bag of gold, and bowed very respectfully to the Mayor’s wife. You’d never have thought he’d been a desperate criminal, wanted by the police, only five minutes before.

And that, I suppose, would have been that; we’d all have gone home and had lunch, and the excitement would have been over. But there was Miss Davenport—and what was she doing? Ducking under the ropes, holding up her hand for silence, standing on the steps of the platform?

“Your Worship,” she said in her best classroom voice: loud, clear, and wake-up-at-the-back-there. “Ladies and gentlemen, I have an important announcement to make. I do not like to mar your joy on this happy occasion with somber thoughts, but I have to tell you that Heinrich, Count Karlstein, is no more.”

Even those in the audience who didn’t know who Count Karlstein was—the visitors, those from the other valleys—gathered from the stunned silence that he was someone of importance. And they’d have gathered from the odd quality of the silence—interested more than sorrowful—that he wasn’t wholly loved by those who did know him. Miss Davenport went on:

“As this is an event which concerns you all, I thought it best to announce it now. I call to witness Meister Haifisch.”

The lawyer (everyone could see he was a lawyer; something in the dry, actorish way he took the center of the platform, I expect) bowed to the Mayor, the referee, the Mayor’s wife, and finally Peter (who bowed back with all the authority of his new rank), and spoke.

“The body of Count Karlstein was discovered this morning by one of his servants. He had suffered an apoplectic fit during the night. The question of the Karlstein estate is a very unusual one, which may excuse our dealing with it in this unusual way. To begin with, there are his two nieces—Miss Lucy and Miss Charlotte.”

“Oh!” gasped Eliza. Charlotte’s hand crept into mine; what was going to happen?