Hangemarx urged on his little horse, and answered, not turning to the
Israelite, who had addressed him, but to Adam, who he thought would
understand him better than the bookworm: "It won't do to go up the
ravine, without making any circuit. The count's hounds will track us,
if they follow. We'll go first up the high road by the Lautenhof.
To-morrow will be a fair-day. People will come early from the villages
and tread down the snow, so the dogs will lose the scent. If it would
only snow."

Before the smithy, the doctor held out his hand to Adam, saying: "We part
here, friend."

"We'll go with you, if agreeable to you."

"Consider," the other began warningly, but Adam interrupted him, saying:

"I have considered everything; lost is lost. Ulrich, take the doctor's
sack from his shoulder."

For a long time nothing more was said.

The night was clear and cold; the men's footsteps fell noiselessly on the
soft snow, nothing was heard except the creaking of the sledge, and ever
and anon Elizabeth's low moaning, or a louder word in the old woman's
soliloquy. Ruth had fallen asleep on her mother's lap, and was breathing
heavily.

At Lautenhof a narrow path led through the mountains deep into the
forest.