"Karl!"
The same lugubrious, lamentable cry was heard, but nearer.
"Come," said Benedict, "it is here!"
Helen leapt over the ditch, entered the wood, and without thinking of her muslin dress which was being torn to rags, she pushed on through the bushes and thorns. The torch-bearers had been thoughtful enough to follow. There in the wood they heard the sound of the robbers fleeing. Benedict signed a halt in order to give them time to escape. Then all was silent again he called a third time:
"Karl!"
This time a howl, as lamentable as the two first, answered, but so close to them that all hearts beat quickly. The men recoiled a step. The boatman pointed.
"A wolf!" said he.
"Where?" asked Benedict.
"There," said Fritz pointing. "Don't you see his eyes shining in the dark like two coals?"
At that moment a flash of lightning penetrated the trees, and showed distinctly a dog sitting beside a motionless body.