"No, not the least."
"Then there can have been no plunge down a precipice; two persons, and two horses, could not disappear from a tolerably safe road without a trace left behind. They have lost their way."
"But that is impossible,--there is no other road," said the priest.
"Yes, one, your reverence, near Almenbach, where the path winds upward to the mountain chapel. The roads are very similar, moonlight is illusive, and if the Countess did not soon find out her mistake, she must have got among the clefts of the Eagle ridge!"
"God protect us!" exclaimed the priest. "That would be almost as bad as a plunge down a precipice!"
Michael bit his lip; he knew that this was no exaggeration; from his boyhood he had been familiar with the clefts and abysses of the Eagle ridge.
"It is the only imaginable possibility," he rejoined. "At all events, there is not a moment to be wasted; hours have been lost already. We must set out immediately."
"Now? In such a night?" asked Wolfram, staring at the captain as if he thought him insane, while Valentin exclaimed,--
"What are you thinking of, Michael? You do not mean----?"
"To go in search of the Countess. Of course. Do you suppose I could stay quietly here while she is exposed to all the horrors of this night?"