Page:Thea von Harbou Metropolis eng 1927.pdf/115

 -~--

METROPOLIS, was standing in the middle of the room. He was dressed in workman's uniform. They walked up to each other as though driven by an outward power. But, halfway, they both stopped aud looked at each other, and each had for the other the same horrified question on his face. Where have you been since I saw you last? To what hell have you desceuded? Freder with his feverish haste, was the first to collect himself. He seized his friend by the arm. . "Sit down'" he said in his toneless voice. which occasionally held the morbid dryness of things burnt. He sat down beside him, not taking his hand from the arm. "You waited for me-in vain and in vain.... I could not send you a message, forgive mel" "'I have nothing to forgive you, Mr. Freder," said J05aphat, quietly. "I did not wait for you.... On the evening on which' I was to have waited for you, I was far, far away from Metropolis and from you...." Freder's waiting eyes looked at him. "I betrayed you, Mr. Freder," said Josaphat. Freder smiled, but Josaphat's eyes extinguished his smile. "I betrayed you, Mr. Freder," repeated the man. "Slim came to me He offered me much money.... But 1 only laughed I threw it at his head. But then re laid on the table a slip with your father's signature.... You must believe me, Mr. Freder; He would never have caught me with the money. There is no sum of money for which 1 would have sold you. . . . But when 1 saw your father's hand~writing. . . . I still put up a tight. I would gladly have lhrottled him. But I had no more strength. . . . JOH FREDERSEN was written on the slip.... 1 had no more strength then...." "I can understand that," said Joh Fredersen's son. "Thank you. . . . 1 was to go away from Metropolisright far away.... I Hew. .... The pilot was a strange man. We kept Hying straight towards the sun. The sun was setting. Then it occurred to my empty brain that now the hour would come in which I was to wait for you. And I should not be there when you came.... I wanted to tum back. I asked the pilot. He wouldn't. He wanted to carry me away by force,

120