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Page 32
CHAPTER VIII.
On the countenance of Sperver was an expression of suppressed wrath, on
that of his companion bitter irony. This worthy sportsman, whose woeful
physiognomy had struck me on my first arrival at Nideck, was as thin and
dry as a lath. His hunting-jacket was girded tightly about him by his
belt, from which hung a hunting-knife with a horn handle; long leathern
gaiters came above his knees; the horn went over his shoulder from
right to left, the wide-expanded opening under his arm; on his head a
wide-brimmed hat, with a heron's plume in the buckle. His profile, coming
to a point in a reddish tuft, looked not unlike a goat's.
"Yes," cried Sperver, "I have got strange things to tell you."
He threw himself in a chair, seizing his head between his clenched hands,
while dismal S�balt calmly drew his horn over his head and laid it on the
table.
"Now, S�balt," cried Gideon, "speak out."
"The witch is hanging about the castle."
This piece of intelligence would have failed to interest me before seeing
Marie Lagoutte, but now it struck more forcibly. There certainly was some
mysterious connection between the lord of Nideck and that old woman. I
knew nothing of the nature of this connection, and I felt that, at
whatever cost, I must know it.
"Just wait a moment, friends," said I to Sperver and his comrade. "I want
to know, first of all, where does this Black Pest come from?"
Sperver stared at me with astonishment.
"Come from? Who can tell that?"
"Very well, you can't. But when does she come within sight of Nideck?"
"As I told you, ten days before Christmas, at the same time every year."
"And how long does she stay?"
"A fortnight or three weeks."
"Is she ever seen before? Not even on her way? Nor after?"
"No."
"Then we shall have to catch her, seize upon her," I cried. "This is
contrary to nature. We must find out where she comes from, what she wants
here, what she is."
"Lay hold of her!" exclaimed Sperver; "seize her! Do you mean it?" and he
shook his head. "Fritz, your advice is good enough in its way, but it is
easier said than done. I could very easily send a bullet after her,
almost at any time; but the count won't consent to that measure; and as
for catching in any other way than by powder and shot, why, you had
better go first and catch a squirrel by the tail! Listen to S�balt's
story, and you shall judge for yourself."
The master of the hounds, sitting on the table with his long legs
crossed, fixed his eyes mournfully upon me, and began his tale.
"This morning, as I was coming down from the Altenberg, I followed the
hollow road to Nideck. The snow filled it up entirely. I was going on my
way, thinking of nothing particular, when I noticed a foot-track; it was
deep down, and went across the road. The person had come down the bank
and gone up on the other side. It was not a soft hare's foot, which
hardly leaves an impression, it was not forked like a wild boar's track,
it was not like a cloven hoof, such as the wolf's--it was a deep hole. I
stopped and stooped down, and cleared away the loose snow that fell
round, and came upon the very track of the Black Pest!"
"Are you sure it was that?"
"Of course I am. I know the old woman by her foot better than by her
figure, for I always go, sir, with my eyes on the ground. I know
everybody by their tracks; and as for this one, a child might know it."
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