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.  Lieverle 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 Schneeberg, the Oxenhorn, the Rhethal, 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!”