"Never fear; it is only to frighten her."
"Very good; but no blood! Remember what I have already told you. The ball that strikes the Plague kills the Count!"
"Rest easy on that score!"
He moved forward, without stopping further to listen to me. I could hear the splash of his feet in the water; then I saw his tall figure appear at the outlet of the glen, black against the bluish background. He stood full five minutes motionless. Meanwhile, I was slowly approaching him, and when he at last turned around, I was within three paces of him.
"Sh!" he said mysteriously; "look there!"
At the end of the open gorge, now revealed to us, which was dug out like a quarry in the mountainside, I saw a bright fire unrolling its golden spires before the mouth of a cave, and in front of the fire sat a man with his hands clasped about his knees, whom I recognized by his clothing as the Baron Zimmer. He sat motionless, with his eyes fixed on the fire, and seemed lost in thought. Behind him a dark form lay stretched upon the ground, and further in the distance, his horse, half lost in the shadows, gazed upon us with fixed eyes, ears pricked up, and distended nostrils.
I stood stupefied. How came the Baron Zimmer to be in this dense, terrifying wilderness at such an hour and such a time,—what was he doing here? Had he lost his way? The most contradictory conjectures succeeded each other in my brain, and I knew not where to pause, when the Baron's horse began to neigh. At the sound, the master raised his head:
"Well, Rappel, what now?"
Then, in his turn, he gazed in our direction, straining his eyes to make us out in the darkness. That pale face, with its clear-cut features, delicate lips, and heavy black eyebrows, gathered in a frown, would have struck me with admiration under any other circumstances, but now an indefinable feeling of apprehension took possession of me, and I was filled with vague anxiety. Suddenly, the young man cried:
"Who goes there?"