fter 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 Sebalt'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."

"What, then, distinguishes this foot so particularly?"

"It is so small that you could cover it with your hand; it is finely
shaped, the heel is rather long, the outline clean, the great toe lies
close to the other toes, and they are all as fine as if they were in a
lady's slipper. It is a lovely foot. Twenty years ago I should have
fallen in love with a foot like that. Whenever I come across it, it has
such an effect upon me! No one would believe that such a foot could
belong to the Black Plague."

And the poor fellow, joining his hands together, contemplated the stone
floor with doleful eyes.

"Well, Sebalt, what next?" asked Sperver impatiently.

"Ah, yes, to be sure! Well, I recognised that track and started off in
pursuit. I was hoping to catch the creature in her lair, but I will tell
you the way she took me. I climbed up the bank by the roadside, only two
gunshots from Nideck. I go along the hill, keeping the track on my right;
it led along the side of the wood in the Rhethal. All at once it jumps
over the ditch into the wood. I stuck to it, but, happening to look a
little to my left, I saw another track which had, been following the
Black Plague. I stopped short: was it