were concentrated into one by their leader.

"Now give us once more the signal, that we may all know it thoroughly,"
said Edward; and the stocking weaver blew his horn with all his might.

Scarcely had the sound died away, when Martina came running up and
exclaimed: "Here are his clothes."

"Let the dogs smell the clothes," said Edward.

Martina would have been almost knocked down by the dogs who surrounded
her, if Haespele had not had the sense to take the bundle from her.

"Call to the dogs,--'Seek Joseph'!" commanded Edward; "and now forward!
march! Joseph is our battle cry."

"Halt!" shouted a deep powerful voice from the opposite side, "what is
the matter?"

"Adam," cried Martina, rushing up to him, "what have you there? have
you found our Joseph?"

"Our Joseph! what do you mean? This is the wolf that I killed with my
cudgel."

"The wolf that tore our child to pieces," cried Martina, clenching her
hands in agony, and staring down at the dead animal. Haespele, very
properly, told Adam in few words what had occurred. Adam was still
holding the animal by the neck, and now he shook the dead creature
violently, and hurled it with superhuman strength far away over the
ditch into the field. Then he said:--

"I make a solemn vow here, before you all, that whether our child is
found or not, my Martina is mine for life or death. May God forgive me
for having been so long a weak undecided, good-for-nothing fellow! but
listen to me, men all. Each of you may strike me in the face if I do
not take my Martina to my own house, even if father, mother, and the
whole world are against it."

"For heaven's sake, don't talk of this just now," said Martina, hiding
her face on Adam's breast, and bursting for the first time into tears;
Adam laid his hand fondly on her head, his breast heaving with the
thick sobs which closely followed each other. Never did any one see
Adam weep but that once.

The whole assemblage, at a silent signal from Edward, had gone forward
with their bells, dogs, and torches; Haespele alone stayed behind with
the unhappy parents, and when Adam looked up, large tears were
glittering in his eyes in the light of the torch. Adam, however, stood
erect, and said energetically: "Come, Martina, we shall certainly find
him. I cannot think that he is dead; I heard him calling in the wood; I
could not believe that it was really a human voice, and yet it was the
voice of my child."

"And how often he called yo