"A wise precaution; but your ideas seem odd to me, Gideon."
"But you, on the other hand," he continued without noticing my interruption, "are an open-hearted, honest lad. Heaven has bestowed many blessings upon you; just one glance at your good-natured face, your frank gaze, and your kindly smile, is enough to make any one happy. And you bring good luck; that is certain. Do you want a proof of what I say?"
"Why, certainly. I am not sorry to discover that I possess so many hitherto unknown virtues."
"Well," said he, seizing my wrist, "look down there!"
He pointed to a hillock a couple of gunshots distant from the Castle.
"Do you see that rock half buried in the snow, with a bush to the left of it?"
"Distinctly."
"And you see nothing near it?"
"No."
"Well, that is easily accounted for; you have driven the Black Plague away. Every year, on the second day of the Count's illness, she was to be seen there, with her arms clasped around her skinny knees. At night, she lighted a fire, warmed herself, and cooked the roots of trees. She was a curse to every living thing. The first thing I did this morning was to climb up to the signal-tower and look around me. The old hag was nowhere to be seen. In vain did I shade my eyes with my hand and gaze to right and left, up and down, across the plain and over the mountain,—not a sign of her anywhere. She has scented you, sure enough!"