At that moment Sperver drew in his bridle and said--

"Fritz, we shall have to get there before night--onward!"

But it was in vain that he spurred and lashed. The horse stood rooted
to the ground, his ears thrown back, his nostrils dilated, his sides
panting, his legs firmly planted in an attitude of resistance.

"What is the matter with the beast?" cried Gideon in astonishment. "Do
you see anything, Fritz? Surely--"

He broke off abruptly, pointing with his whip at a dark form in the snow
fifty yards off, on the slope of the hill.

"The Black Plague!" he exclaimed with a voice of distress which almost
robbed me of my self-possession.

Following the indication of his outstretched whip I discerned with
astonishment an aged woman crouching on the snowy ground, with her arms
clasped about her knees, and so tattered that her red elbows came through
her tattered sleeves. A few ragged locks of grey hung about her long,
scraggy, red, and vulture-like neck.

Strange to say, a bundle of some kind lay upon her knees, and her haggard
eyes were directed upon distant objects in the white landscape.

Spencer drew off to the left, giving the hideous object as wide a berth
as he could, and I had some difficulty in following him.

"Now," I cried, "what is all this for? Are you joking?"