"And were you really in earnest, Herr Runeck?"
Some seconds elapsed ere he answered. He seemed yet paler than awhile ago, but his eye met that look fully and darkly, while he coldly replied:
"Yes, Baroness Wildenrod."
"There, you hear it for yourself," cried Eric, half-laughing, half vexed. "He is as hard as these rocks."
The young lady tapped lightly with her riding-whip against the pile of rocks that lay heaped up in front of her.
"Maybe. But rocks, too, can be brought to yield, we see. Take heed, Herr Runeck, you have mocked and defied those mysterious powers----they will have their revenge!"
The words should have sounded playful, and yet there was a perceptible breath of defiance in them. Egbert answered not a word, while Eric looked in amazement from one to the other.
"Of what were you talking?" asked he.
"We were speaking of the caper-spurge, which cleaves rocks asunder, and unlocks the hidden treasures of earth.--But I think we had better go now, if you approve."
Eric assented, and then turned to Runeck.