"Well, let us try and catch her alive. We will put on gloves if we have
to touch her, but it is not so easy as you think, Fritz."

And pointing out with extended hand the panorama of mountains which lay
unrolled about us like a vast amphitheatre, he added--

"Look! there's the Altenberg, the Schnéeberg, the Oxenhorn, the Rhéthal,
the Behrenkopf, and if we only got up a little higher we should see fifty
more mountain-tops far away, right into the Palatinate. There are rocks
and ravines, passes and valleys, torrents and waterfalls, forests, and
more mountains; here beeches, there firs, then oaks, and the old woman
has got all that for her camping-ground. She tramps everywhere, and lives
in a hole wherever she pleases. She has a sure foot, a keen eye, and can
scent you a couple of miles off. How are you going to catch her, then?"

"If it was an easy matter where would be the merit? I should not then
have chosen you to take a part in it."

"That is all very fine, Fritz. If we only had one end of her trail, who
knows but with courage and perseverance--"

"As for her trail, don't trouble about that; that's my business."

"Yours?"

"Yes, mine."

"What do you know about following up a trail?"