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—­