re only pain,
quiet endurance, and touching sorrow. Ah, his own heart had often bled,
as the pure brow of this poor, persecuted, tortured saint bled beneath
its crown of thorns. To defy this silent companion in suffering, was
no manly deed--to pay homage, out of love, to Him, who had brought
love into the world, seemed to possess a sweet, ensnaring charm--so he
clasped his slender hands closely round his dumb wife's fingers, pressed
his dark curls against Elizabeth's fair hair, and both, for the first
and last time, repeated together a mute, fervent prayer.

Before the hut, and surrounded by the forest, was a large clearing,
where two roads crossed.

Adam, Marx and Ruth had gazed first down one and then the other, to look
for the wagon, but nothing was to be seen or heard. As, with increasing
anxiety, they turned back to the first path, the poacher grew restless.
His crooked mouth twisted to and fro in strange contortions, not a
muscle of his coarse face was till, and this looked so odd and yet so
horrible, that Ruth could not help laughing, and the smith asked what
ailed him.

Marx made no reply; his ear had caught the distant bay of a dog, and he
knew what the sound meant. Work at the anvil impairs the hearing, and
the smith did not notice the approaching peril, and repeated: "What ails
you, man?"

"I am freezing," replied the charcoal-burner, cowering, with a piteous
expression.

Ruth heard no more of the conversation, she had stopped and put her
hand to her ear, listening with head bent forward, to the noises in the
distance.

Suddenly she uttered a low cry, exclaiming: "There's a dog barking,
Meister Adam, I hear it."

The smith turned pale and shook his head, but she cried earnestly:
"Believe me; I hear it. Now it's barking again."

Adam too, now heard a strange noise in the forest. With lightning speed
he loosened the hammer in his belt, took Ruth by the hand, and ran up
the clearing with her.

Meantime, Lopez had compelled old Rahel to rise.

Everything must be ready, when Ulrich returned. In his impatience he had
gone to the door, and when he saw Adam hurrying up the glade with the
child, ran anxiously to meet them, thinking that some accident had
happened to Ulrich.

"Back, back!" shouted the smith, and Ruth, releasing her hand from his,
also motioned and shrieked "Back, back!"

The doctor obeyed the warning, and stopped; but he had scarcely turned,
when several dogs appeared at the mouth of t