i 9 2 WOLF-HUNTING. 



braconnier's bed, was bathing his temples with cold lotions, and 

 tenderly adjusting his pillow to the varying motions of his injured 

 head. Nor was his kindly visit wholly unattended by consolation, 

 inasmuch as he was assured by the medical officer that the 

 braconnier's habits with respect to drink having always been most 

 temperate he yet entertained, notwithstanding the severity of 

 the concussion, a confident hope in his ultimate recovery. This 

 opinion produced unspeakable relief to Kergoorlas's mind ; for if 

 fatal results were to follow the blow inflicted by his own servant, 

 the public would not fail to regard him as the indirect cause of 

 the murder, and the stain, however unmerited, would probably 

 cling to his name for life. 



Far different was the spectacle in the prison-ward of the 

 gendarmerie. There, close pinioned, and utterly powerless for 

 the commission of any violent act, lay Gastel, the piqueur, his 

 eyes glaring like those of a wild beast, fierce but without expres- 

 sion, and his whole visage distorted by delirium tremeiis. A more 

 painful sight, Kergoorlas declared, it was never his lot to witness. 

 The man was not then drunk ; but, his brain on fire and his 

 reason gone, except in form, he was far more like a wolf of the 

 forest than a human being. 



" Absinthe has done it all," said the doctor gravely. " He has 

 been an inveterate dram-drinker for a long period, I understand ; 

 and if so, this attack will go hard with him." 



"Quite true," replied Kergoorlas ; "for although I have rarely 

 seen him in a state of helpless intoxication, from morning to night 

 he gave his stomach no rest. He began the day with absinthe ; 

 then it was for ever a goutte of this or a goutte of that, whenever 

 chance threw liquor in his way ; and so Nature has sent in her 

 account at last." 



" And a heavy one, too, it is. However," added the doctor, 

 cheerfully, " we'll do our best to help him to meet it, bad as the 

 schedule looks on the debtor's side." 



