The fortnight that followed was one of rejoicing throughout Nideck. The Count gained with wonderful rapidity, and for a week past he had moved about the Castle with a buoyancy and contentment of demeanor which only Odile and the old steward could recall having seen in him long years before, ere the dead witch had yet entwined him in the meshes of her baneful spell.

Even the grim, melancholy Sebalt had become grotesquely gay, and he discontinued his matinal post on the Altenberg, feeling, no doubt, that he had contributed not a little to his master's recovery. As for Sperver, he was radiant, and he would come to my chamber late at night, after I had left Odile, and as we sat over our bottles we would discuss for the fiftieth time the circ.u.mstances of my stay within the Castle.

During the earlier stages of the Count's convalescence I repaired each morning to his chamber, where I invariably found Odile arrived before me, and as the Count was fond of reading, which served to wear away the period of his enforced inactivity, Odile and I would share for hours together the reading of "Garin the Lorrainer," which was one of his favorite romances.

The extent of my contentment may be imagined. Whenever I glanced up from my book as it became necessary to turn a page, I invariably met Odile's eyes fastened upon my face, and speaking the whole language of love and contentment, and when she in turn a.s.sumed the reading, I found myself lost in a world of reverie and speculation as I continued to study her beautiful face, which was always a revelation to me, no matter how long it remained before my gaze.

Oh, the delight of all this! How I pity you crabbed misanthropes who know not the richness of a loving woman's endearments!

I had determined, with Odile's sanction, to broach the subject of our betrothal to the Count as soon as his health would permit it.

Meanwhile, our hours at table were spent in laying plans for our future.

I was sanguine of success in my avowal, for added to the Count's desire of seeing his line perpetuated,--which lay nearest his heart,--I knew that he felt, though how deservedly I leave it to the reader to determine, that I had been instrumental in restoring him to health.

These considerations, combined with his invariable desire to secure to his daughter her slightest wish or whim, I believed would be sufficient to ensure the consummation of my desire. Moreover, with my beloved champion beside me, I felt strong enough to overcome the opposition of the universe.

But the future still held something in store, and as it often happens when we fancy ourselves beyond the reach of an adverse Fate, we may in reality be standing within the shadows of the Valley of Darkness.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE BOAR HUNT.

"You must be ready to start with the Count in an hour," exclaimed Sperver, as he stood on my threshold before the sun had yet risen.

"Sebalt and Becker came in late last night, famished, and covered with mud, and they have reported a wild boar's tracks near the Leidenthal. I will lend you whatever clothes you need, but be quick, for there's only breakfast between us and the start."

I got up, and taking a hasty plunge in the icy water beside my bed, which served to drive the vapors from my brain, I half dressed myself, and followed Sperver to his room.

"The beaters found game worthy of our powder," continued Gideon. "They brought back a dried clump of bog-mud with an enormous hoof-print in the middle of it. If the Count's carbine misses fire, we must stand in well beside him this time, though he always grudges the fatal shot to any arm but his own."

I paid little heed to his words, busied as I was in accommodating myself to my borrowed garments, and I presently emerged from the chamber dressed in a leather hunting-jacket, cap, and long gaiters which reached to my hips; a carbine and long hunting-knife completed my outfit.

"If I only had you for a couple of weeks on the forest patrol, I would make a first-cla.s.s shot out of you," said Sperver with a grin. "As it is, I suppose you know as much about a gun as a pike does of mountain climbing."

"Just about!" I laughed. "However, I'm fortunately in such good company that it will make little difference whether I can tell the muzzle from the stock, or not."

"There's something in that," he returned; "and as there are to be ladies in the party you may find other employment as agreeable as the killing of animals," and he looked at me with a dry twitching of his mouth.

I made no reply to this beyond rather a grim smile, and a moment later we reached the dining-room. I found the Count dressed in hunting-costume, seated at the table, on which Tobias was placing the last dishes for the breakfast. He complimented me on my professional appearance, and added that, judging from externals, a little practice was all that was necessary to make me an accomplished huntsman.

I looked in vain for Odile as I entered the room, but she presently appeared in a close-fitting habit which became her marvellously well, sparkling with health and freshness, and bearing in one hand her long skirt, and in the other a pearl-handled crop. A pistol with a heavy barrel was thrust beneath her belt, more for ornament, I fancied, than for service.

"Ha! Odile!" cried her father, as she greeted us and took her seat at the table, "the mere sight of your rosy cheeks and lithe step puts new life into me! It's a pleasure to look at you. Isn't it so, Monsieur Gaston?" then, as Odile grew crimson with confusion, the Count perceived his blunder, and began to busy himself with the dishes before him. The next moment I caught Odile's eye, as she stole an amused glance at me, and I nodded a quick affirmative, without violence to my conscience.

The meal pa.s.sed with narratives of hunting exploits by the Count, who delighted in recalling his past experiences, often discontinuing his meal to ill.u.s.trate by att.i.tudes and gestures his combats with the different animals of the regions round about. Odile and I proved good listeners, though, perhaps, as one sometimes hearkens to a strain of music, the better to indulge his own reflections.

Breakfast finished, we went down into the courtyard. A dozen horses stood saddled just inside the princ.i.p.al gate. Sebalt, in his leather dress, with his double-coiled horn strapped across his back, and a heavy cowhide whip in his hand ready to strike, held a score of dogs in leash, that were baying and tugging at their bonds in excited antic.i.p.ation of the part they were to play in the day's sport. Joy gleamed in every line of his goat's face as his long deferred desire was now about to be realized. Gideon, who held the Count's horse, looked more himself than I had seen him since the death of poor Lieverle; he seemed to have recovered much of his wonted good spirits.

I pushed aside the groom who stood beside Odile's horse, and she sprang from my hand into the saddle. Then I, in turn, mounted my horse, and moved abreast of Odile and the Count.

When all was in readiness, Sebalt raised his horn and sounded the departure as, according to Sperver, he alone could sound it.

The neighboring hillsides took up the sound, and threw it back in tones of purest silver, and all the echoes of the valleys were awakened and fled away towards the rising sun. This warm February sun had done its work, and the snow had disappeared to a level of but a few inches, covered with a hard crust. We started off at a gallop. Sebalt and Sperver rode first, with Odile, the Count, and myself close behind them.

Becker and the under-keepers came on in the rear.

Sebalt led the pack along the base of the Gaisenberg, and skirting the falls of the Lauterbach, he followed along the defile at its further side, from which point the trail diverged in the direction of the Leidenthal. The weather was superb, not a cloud in the heavens, and the frosty air clear as crystal. The bare oaks creaked their gaunt branches, and the singing pines waved their lofty tops in the fresh south wind.

The yelping of the pack could have been heard for a mile around, and Gideon, turning from time to time, called to them:

"Hold your noise, you rascals; you'll have reason enough to howl before long, I'll warrant."

There was little chance for conversation at the furious pace which we were following, and I contented myself with frequent glances at Odile, whose superb beauty was enhanced by the bright color in her cheeks, which excitement, exercise and happiness called forth. As for the Count, I could no longer recognize in him the dying patient of my first night at Nideck. All trace of his terrible illness had vanished, and he rode like a youth of twenty years, vigorous, calm, confident.

At the end of an hour we emerged from the defile into the dazzling sunlight beyond. The dogs came upon the trail of the boar, and their long, full cries changed to exultant yappings; they glided along to right and left among the rocks, their noses to the ground, and they ran and leaped along the trail. Not one of them followed the other's lead, until he had verified the scent for himself; like all true hunting dogs, they relied only upon themselves.

Meanwhile, the blast of the horn, the short, savage yelps of the pack, and the noise of our horses' hoofs as they pierced the sparkling snow crust, made music of an exciting, bewildering sort. I galloped on imbued to the finger-tips with the contagious antic.i.p.ation everywhere around me.

For some little time past the order of the hunt had been broken up. The Count, seemingly lost in the one object of the chase and oblivious to all else, had ridden far ahead, and had almost overtaken Sebalt and Sperver, who were at such a distance from us that the sound of their trumpets grew feebler and feebler, and at length were entirely lost, save that at rare intervals they reached our ears like the sigh of the pa.s.sing breeze. The mounts of Becker and his comrades, though chosen for endurance and strength, were not the equal of ours in speed; and thus it was that Odile and I now found ourselves alone, as it were, midway in the plain.

On we went. Every now and then Odile would turn her head and smile at me; then she would whisper to her horse, and we bounded along yet faster. From the less frequent pauses of the pack, that glided, no larger than rabbits now, up the distant slopes, and their straight-ahead course, I fancied that the foremost of the party were approaching the whereabouts of the game.

It was now that a belt of dense woods became visible on the rising ground before us. The Count had by this time gained so far upon us that we presently saw him disappear, together with his followers, within its borders.

"We must be in at the death!" cried Odile breathlessly; "let's make haste!" and she urged her horse still further, while I clapped spurs to mine. Twenty minutes later we had covered the intervening distance, and dashed into the shadows of the wood.

We had not proceeded above a mile further, when we found that our road forked, and running over an extensive ledge of rock, swept bare of snow and pine-needles by the wind, we were at a loss which path to follow, for there were no tracks of horses nor dogs, and the direction of both paths being apparently the same, the noise of the pack growing momentarily fainter, afforded us no clue to our proper course.

We reined up, impatient at this vexatious occurrence.

"Which way now?" I cried to Odile.

She hesitated for a moment.

"Let's go to the right!" she replied. "There's a new blaze on that beech-tree yonder. Perhaps one of the men's guns bruised the bark as he pa.s.sed it!" and without waiting for me to reply, she started on again.

It occurred to me a few moments later that we might now be left entirely alone if, perchance, we had chosen the wrong path, and if our followers, who would inevitably meet with the same question of direction on reaching the fork in the road, should decide upon the one to the left.

I felt little apprehension in being thus deserted, as it were, but let it not be understood by this that fearlessness formed any part of my character; it was to the more ign.o.ble trait of ignorance that my present equanimity was due. I did, however, feel that Odile should be reminded of the fact, and I proceeded to communicate it to her; but whether it was that her attention was so much engrossed by the business in hand that she had no thought for anything else, or whether she considered my apprehensions groundless, her only reply was a smile and a motion of her head, as her horse carried her away from me, which I interpreted as meant to rea.s.sure me, and I gave my horse his head.

From time to time we heard, far over on the mountainside, the sound of the woodcutter's axe, falling against the oak with measured stroke,--that slow, heavy stroke that is taken up and exaggerated by the echoes,--then the creaking of the falling tree, the shout of warning, and the thud of the giant as it measured its length upon the earth, crashing among the underbrush. Owing to the frequent windings of the woodland path, and the uncertain character of the ground, we were obliged to moderate our speed, and as we came upon the open land between the hills, the barking of the dogs reached us, loud for a moment, then faint again, as some intervening object came between us.

"You hear the dogs!" cried Odile; "we are on the right path after all!"

And as the sounds became more distinct with each moment, I was satisfied that she was right.

Here and there, as we entered a dark defile, we saw the fire of the charcoal-burner beneath the shadowy boughs, spreading its purple ring over the snow-crust and even to the tops of the swaying firs, then drawing its uncertain rays the closer until it was no longer but a spark, only to spread them out again yet wider than before. The outline of the charcoal-burner, stooping over the flame, with his broad-brimmed hat flattened on his shoulders, smoking his short, black pipe, and turning potatoes in the embers, reminded me at a distance of the trolls that are said to quarry gems of untold value in the centre of the earth.

The noise of the dogs, forming a discordant, frenzied concert, grew nearer every moment. At length a sharp turn to the left, as we emerged from the deep, narrow glen which we had been traversing for some minutes past, brought us, it almost seemed, right upon the game, so startling was the uproar that greeted us.