"Are you then entirely God-forsaken, unhappy woman?" said the minister, laying his fleshy hand on Aunt Ursul's shoulder.
"Not I, but you, hare-hearted man," said Aunt Ursul, shaking off his hand and turning vigorously away. "You who always preach about sacrifice and love, and have neither the one nor the other; and shear the cuckoo for the lost lamb, if you can only sit quietly by your flesh-pots. Now then stay, in the devil's name--God forgive me the sin--I shall be able alone to find the road to my poor, misguided boy, and God will give me the right words to touch his heart."
Again Aunt Ursul turned away. The minister slapped his forehead, and with a few rapid steps overtook her as she was hastening from him.
"For once and every time. By the thousand, woman! why did you not tell me at once that it was something about Conrad?"
"About many things. Forget what I have said. I give you my word as a man and as a servant of God that it was a misunderstanding--of which I am ashamed--and for which I ask your pardon. When shall we start?"
Aunt Ursul shook her head. She could not conceive what her old friend had before thought, but she felt that he was now fully resolved, and minutes were precious.
"At once naturally," she replied to his last question.
"So! Come in and say a friendly word to the girl, and let nothing be noticed. Lambert must not know what we have in hand. Nobody must know. If we succeed in bringing him back it is well; if not, let his shame be buried with us. In either case they must not feel concerned about us. It is possible, dominie, that we shall never return. You comprehend that clearly?"
Two hours later, Aunt Ursul and the minister were already deep in the forest, away from the creek, on a narrow Indian path, which was as well the path of the buffalo and the deer. But Pluto, going before the wanderers, with her broad nose near the ground and her long, restless tail wagging, did not follow the tracks of buffalo or deer. More than once she turned away from a fresh track into the woods, every time soon to return into the path.
"You see now, dominie, how well it is that I went back to fetch the dog on an occasion like this," said Aunt Ursul. "You were impatient at the losing of time, but we are well paid for it."