"A fortnight or three weeks."

"Is she ever seen before? Not even on her way? Nor after?"

"No."

"Then we shall have to catch her, seize upon her," I cried. "This is
contrary to nature. We must find out where she comes from, what she wants
here, what she is."

"Lay hold of her!" exclaimed Sperver; "seize her! Do you mean it?" and he
shook his head. "Fritz, your advice is good enough in its way, but it is
easier said than done. I could very easily send a bullet after her,
almost at any time; but the count won't consent to that measure; and as
for catching in any other way than by powder and shot, why, you had
better go first and catch a squirrel by the tail! Listen to Sébalt's
story, and you shall judge for yourself."

The master of the hounds, sitting on the table with his long legs
crossed, fixed his eyes mournfully upon me, and began his tale.

"This morning, as I was coming down from the Altenberg, I followed the
hollow road to Nideck. The snow filled it up entirely. I was going on my
way, thinking of nothing particular, when I noticed a foot-track; it was
deep down, and went across the road. The person had come down the bank
and gone up on the other side. It was not a soft hare's foot, which
hardly leaves an impression, it was not forked like a wild boar's track,
it was not like a cloven hoof, such as the wolf's--it was a deep hole. I
stopped and stooped down, and cleared away the loose snow that fell