From the hills which bordered the Justice's fields there came forth two men of different appearance and age. The one, clad in a green hunter's jacket, with a little cap on his curly head and a light Liège gun on his arm, was a strikingly handsome youth; the other, dressed in more quiet colors, was an elderly man with a frank and sincere manner. The younger strode on ahead, as nimbly as a stag, while the older maintained a somewhat slower gait, like that of a worn-out hunting-dog lagging behind the master to whom he is still ever faithful. After they had emerged into an open space at the foot of the hills, they both sat down on a large stone, which lay there beside several others in the shade of a mighty linden. The younger man gave some money and papers to the older, pointed out to him the direction in which he was to continue his way, and said: "Go now, Jochem, and be discreet, so that we can get hold of this confounded Schrimbs or Peppel who has been inventing such monstrous lies, and as soon as you discover him, let me know." "I'll be discreet all right," replied old Jochem. "I'll make such sly and secret inquiries in all the villages and cities about a man who signs his name Schrimbs or Peppel, that it would have to be the devil's own fault if I don't succeed in locating the wretch. In the meanwhile you lie low here _incognito,_ until you receive further news from me." "Very well," said the young man, "and now, Jochem, be very cautious and thoughtful all the time in the way you handle the matter, for we are no longer in dear Suabia, but out among the Saxons and Franks." "The miserable fellows!" exclaimed old Jochem. "Faith, they have long talked about Suabian stupidities! They shall see that a Suabian can be a sly bird too when it is necessary." "And keep always to the right, my Jochem, for the last tracks of this Schrimbs or Peppel are headed that way," said the young man, standing up and giving the old man a cordial parting handshake. "Always to the right, of course," replied the latter. He handed over to the other his hunting-bag, which was stuffed full, and which up to now he had been carrying, lifted his hat and went off, following a side-path at the right, down toward the region where, in the distance, one could see towering up one of the steeples mentioned in the foregoing chapter. The young man, on the other hand, went directly down toward the Oberhof. He had taken perhaps a hundred steps when he heard somebody running behind him and panting. He turned around and saw that his old companion was hurrying after him. "There was one more thing I wanted to ask and beg of you," the latter cried. "Now that you are alone and left to yourself, get rid of your gun; for you certainly won't hit anything and, sure as death, you will have a mishap again, as you almost did not long ago when you fired at the hare and came very near killing the child."