ON PLAIN AND PEAK 



It was with an air of mystery that both men 

 listened, and, when I had finished, I noticed the 

 quick questioning way in which the heger looked up 

 at his superior. The forester merely shrugged his 

 shoulders, but he, too, cast a startled glance at the 

 Dismal Pool. It was as if both men knew some- 

 thing which they would not speak of. 



We looked vainly about for some trace of the 

 beast ; and then we parted. 



But before I had gone many yards I found the 

 heger at my elbow. 



"If the thing you shot at had been a real live 

 roebuck," he muttered in broken German, " it 

 should have been lying dead at the foot of that 

 tree ! And believe me, sir, it were better not to 

 come again to this cursed pool ! " 



Then he turned and left me. 



Need I say I went there again ? But I never 

 saw that roebuck afterwards ! 



132 



