The Erckmann-Chatrian MEGAPACK ®. Emile Erckmann

may have had a design connected with me in sending Sperver to fetch me here.”

      “You are right, sir. God never acts without consummate wisdom. Do whatever you think right. I give my approval in advance.”

      I raised to my lips the hand which she tremblingly placed in mine, and went out full of admiration for this frail and feeble woman, who was, nevertheless, so strong in the time of trial. Is anything grander than duty nobly accomplished?

      CHAPTER XII

      An hour after the conversation with Odile, Sperver and I were riding hard, and leaving Nideck rapidly behind us.

      The huntsman, bending forward over his horse’s neck, encouraged him with voice and action.

      He rode so fast that his tall Mecklemburger, her mane flying, tail outstretched, and legs extended wide, seemed almost motionless, so swiftly did she cleave the air. As for my little Ardenne pony, I think he was running right away with his rider. Lieverlé accompanied us, flying alongside of us like an arrow from the bow. A whirlwind seemed to sweep us in our headlong way.

      The towers of Nideck were far away, and Sperver was keeping ahead as usual when I shouted—

      “Halloo, comrade, pull up! Halt! Before we go any farther let us know what we are about.”

      He faced round.

      “Only just tell me, Fritz, is it right or is it left?”

      “No; that won’t do. It is of the first importance that you should know the object of our journey. In short, we are going to catch the hag.”

      A flush of pleasure brightened up the long sallow face of the old poacher, and his eyes sparkled.

      “Ha, ha!” he cried, “I knew we should come to that at last!”

      And he slipped his rifle round from his shoulder into his hand.

      This significant action roused me.

      “Wait, Sperver; we are not going to kill the Black Pest, but to take her alive!”

      “Alive?”

      “No doubt, and it will spare you a good deal of remorse perhaps if I declare to you that the life of this old woman is bound up with that of your master. The ball that hits her hits your lord.”

      Sperver gazed at me in astonishment.

      “Is this really true, Fritz?”

      “Positively true.”

      There was a long silence; our mounts, Fox and Rappel, tossed their heads at each other as if in the act of saluting one another, scraping up the snow with their hoofs in congratulation upon so pleasant an expedition. Lieverlé opened wide his red mouth, gaping with impatience, extending and bending his long meagre body like a snake, and Sperver sat motionless, his hand still upon his gun.

      “Well, let us try and catch her alive. We will put on gloves if we have to touch her, but it is not so easy as you think, Fritz.”

      And pointing out with extended hand the panorama of mountains which lay unrolled about us like a vast amphitheatre, he added—

      “Look! there’s the Altenberg, the Schnéeberg, the Oxenhorn, the Rhéthal, the Behrenkopf, and if we only got up a little higher we should see fifty more mountain-tops far away, right into the Palatinate. There are rocks and ravines, passes and valleys, torrents and waterfalls, forests, and more mountains; here beeches, there firs, then oaks, and the old woman has got all that for her camping-ground. She tramps everywhere, and lives in a hole wherever she pleases. She has a sure foot, a keen eye, and can scent you a couple of miles off. How are you going to catch her, then?”

      “If it was an easy matter where would be the merit? I should not then have chosen you to take a part in it.”

      “That is all very fine, Fritz. If we only had one end of her trail, who knows but with courage and perseverance—”

      “As for her trail, don’t trouble about that; that’s my business.”

      “Yours?”

      “Yes, mine.”

      “What do you know about following up a trail?”

      “Why should not I?”

      “Oh, if you are so sure of it, and you know more about it than I do, of course march on, and I’ll follow!”

      It was easy to see that the old hunter was vexed that I should presume to trespass upon his special province; therefore, only laughing inwardly, I required no repetition of the request to lead on, and I turned sharply to the left, sure of coming across the old woman’s trail, who, after having left the count at the postern gate, must have crossed the plain to reach the mountain. Sperver rode behind me now, whistling rather contemptuously, and I could hear him now and then grumbling—

      “What is the use of looking for the track of the she-wolf in the plain? Of course she went along the forest side just as usual. But it seems she has altered her habits, and now walks about with her hands in her pockets, like a respectable Fribourg tradesman out for a walk.”

      I turned a deaf ear to his hints, but in a moment I heard him utter an exclamation of surprise; then, fixing a keen eye upon me, he said—

      “Fritz, you know more than you choose to tell.”

      “How so, Gideon?”

      “The track that I should have been a week finding, you have got it at once. Come, that’s not all right!”

      “Where do you see it, then?”

      “Oh, don’t pretend to be looking at your feet.”

      And pointing out to me at some distance a scarcely perceptible white streak in the snow—

      “There she is!”

      Immediately he galloped up to it; I followed in a couple of minutes; we had dismounted, and were examining the track of the Black Pest.

      “I should like to know,” cried Sperver, “how that track came here?”

      “Don’t let that trouble you,” I replied.

      “You are right, Fritz; don’t mind what I say; sometimes I do speak rather at random. What we want now is to know where that track will lead us to.”

      And now the huntsman knelt on the ground.

      I was all ears; he was closely examining.

      “It is a fresh track,” he pronounced, “last night’s. It is a strange thing, Fritz, during the count’s last attack that old witch was hanging about the castle.”

      Then examining with greater care—

      “She passed here between three and four o’clock this morning.”

      “How can you tell that?”

      “It is quite a fresh track; there is sleet all round it. Last night, about twelve, I came out to shut the doors; there was sleet falling then, there is none upon the footsteps, therefore she has passed since.”

      “That is true enough, Sperver, but it may have been made much later; for instance, at eight or nine.”

      “No, look, there is frost upon it! The fog that freezes on the snow only comes at daybreak. The creature passed here after the sleet and before the fog—that is, about three or four this morning.”

      I was astonished at Sperver’s exactitude.

      He rose from his knee, clapping his hands together to get rid of the snow, and looking at me thoughtfully, as if speaking to himself, said—

      “It is twelve, is it not, Fritz?”

      “A quarter to twelve.”

      “Very well; then the old woman has got seven hours’ start of us. We must follow upon her trail step by step; on horseback we can do it in half the time, and,