A TREACHEROUS COWARD 221 



sort at night. Still I could not bear to be moved 

 until the next morning. The steamer was now wait- 

 ing to take us both to Roberval. She lay about a 

 mile from us out in the channel and we were taken 

 out to her in a row boat. 



At noon we reached our destination where a car- 

 riage was in waiting to take me to a boarding-house 

 which was kept by a delightful old French couple who 

 had formerly been employed in a nobleman's family 

 in France. They doctored and nursed me with the 

 tenderest care, and at the end of six days I was able to 

 travel homeward. 



But don't imagine, reader, that my back was now 

 in prime order. No ; there was still a stiffness and a 

 " hump " there that took me weeks to get rid of. I 

 did at last recover my normal health, but the beastly 

 disease seemed determined not to forget me entirely. 

 Recently it found me on another hunting trip, and in 

 this way. It was raining very hard and I put on rub- 

 ber hip boots and a new mackintosh and cape. The 

 two latter are a delusion and a snare. They hold 

 neither comfort nor much shelter and the hunter is 

 wise that avoids them. I made a journey to a bog 

 eight miles distant, taking the bed of a stream where 

 the walking was easier than in the road. The water 

 was cold, however — cold enough to keep my feet at an 

 icy temperature — while the mackintosh kept my body 

 in a perspiration. On my way up the stream I shot a 



