A few seconds elapsed, during which the two men did not venture to breathe. There! There he was again, and nearer--considerably nearer; he seemed to be coming directly towards them, and there could no longer be a doubt of it. Within a few minutes the distance had lessened at least one-half; they scarcely dared to look through the waving sedges, necessary as it was to watch the movements of the man, who even at the last moment might take another direction. And now he glided down the slope of the next hillock in the chain, and came straight up the down behind whose crest they lay. It was the highest of them all, and he probably wished to look around him a short time, in order to assure himself that no danger was threatening from any quarter. They had slipped down a few feet, and crouched as closely as possible among the sedges. In a few moments Hinrich Scheel's head must appear before them; they distinctly heard him toiling up the tolerably steep slope on the other side, and muttering curses when the sand gave way under his feet. "Now!" They started up, and darted to the summit. With a lightning-like movement Hinrich glided from under Gotthold's hands, but as he turned to the left ran directly into Jochen's arms, and the two in one indistinguishable ball, slipped, rolled, and tumbled down the hillock faster than Gotthold could follow them. Jochen had taken a firm hold, but in the last turn he fell underneath; with a desperate effort Hinrich released himself, and was dealing a furious blow with a large clasp-knife he had drawn from his pocket, when Gotthold seized his arm and turned the weapon aside. Jochen had already started up again, and the next instant Hinrich Scheel, in his turn, was lying on the sand, face downwards, and Jochen, kneeling on his shoulders, was in the act of tying his elbows behind him with a small rope, which, after the manner of old coachmen, he always carried about with him. "If you tie me, you'll crush me at the same time," gasped Hinrich Scheel. "I won't get up." "Release him," said Gotthold. "But we'll take care of this ourselves," said Jochen as he drew a pistol from the pocket of the prostrate man, and handed it to Gotthold. "There!" Hinrich Scheel stood erect. His squinting eyes stared horribly at his assailant from a face distorted with rage. Suddenly he started back. "You," he cried, "you! What do you want of me?" CHAPTER XXXI. There was a wild terror in Hinrich's look and gesture, and the rattling tone of his harsh voice. "What is the matter?" cried Gotthold, shaking the man, who still stood before him as if petrified, rudely by the shoulder.