Sabina led the way to the edge of the meadow, plunging without hesitation straight through the encircling wall of pines. Once again Matthew found himself scratching and scraping and walking blindly through branches and leaves and brush until the trees began to thin and gradually they were walking again through the spacious and open wood. In another moment or two they arrived at the spot where they had left their horses.

Matthew glanced back the way they had come. “I’d never dream it was there,” he said. “Your eyes think they’re looking through a wood that just goes on and on, and you can’t see so much as a hint of what’s hidden right there in the middle of it.”

“We have to ride farther,” said Sabina, mounting her Morgan.

Matthew climbed onto the back of the Belgian and followed. He did not fully comprehend their direction, but the course they now pursued was drawing a wide semicircular arc through the wood toward the southeast, gradually moving up a sloping rise in the terrain. After about fifteen minutes, though still in the heart of the wood, they had reached the crest of a wooded hill that, at a distance of a kilometer or two, was about half the height of the bare knoll upon which sat the house and buildings of the Dortmann estate.

“What’s that?” asked Matthew, pointing ahead into the trees at a small wooden structure.

“It’s a hunting box.”

“It looks like a tree house to me, without the tree.”

“You build them in the trees?”

“Sure, I’ve never seen one freestanding like that.”

“Shall we climb it?” said Sabina, scrambling off her horse and dashing toward the wooden ladder which led up to the small enclosure.

Matthew was right behind her, and in two or three minutes they were comfortably seated inside, though the quarters were cramped.

“What a view!” exclaimed Matthew, gazing out above the tops of the trees that fell off below them in all directions. “I hadn’t realized we were climbing but from up here you can see the top of the forest all around, and out across the fields in the distance.”

“Why do you think I brought you here?” laughed Sabina. “This is one of the most spectacular views for many kilometers. The wood is full of hunting boxes, but this is the one I like to climb best.”

“I know why! You can see all over the valley out there, the fields off to the right, and there’s your father’s estate straight ahead of us. I hadn’t noticed before, but there seems to be a village straight off in the distance.”

“Yes. Niedersdorf.”

“And is that another estate between your father’s and the village?”

“Not so large as Papa’s, yet sizable. That is Count von Schmundt’s villa.” As she said the name, a chill came into Sabina’s voice.