IX A German First of September 489 



fashion. I found myself with only one man in 

 sight, on my right hand, a thick screen of birch 

 coppice before me, and the slaty bed of a winter 

 stream, now dry as an oven, on my left. Happen- 

 ing to look towards my right-hand neighbour, it 

 seemed that something was going wrong. I did 

 not like his looks ; he handled his piece like a crow- 

 keeper ; he had a half- unhappy, half- determined 

 way of flourishing his gun about, that augured badly 

 for the safety of my legs. One can tell in a moment 

 from the way a man handles his gun or his billiard- 

 cue whether he knows how to use them or not. 

 I called to him to know if there was anything the 

 matter. * Not yet ; but Hans Somebody had seen 

 or heard a boar somewhere about here, last winter, 



and it was possible ' What was possible I 



never heard, for at the same moment, out bounced 

 a fine roe from the leafy screen before us, and took 

 the drive at a bound. My nervous friend exploded, 

 — I can hardly say fired — both barrels at the same 

 moment, and the roe crashed, apparently unhurt, 

 through the underwood ; but at the same instant, 

 from the thicket before us, there arose a yell, 

 followed by such a burst of unearthly bowlings and 

 lamentings, that I fancied at the moment that the 

 roe was an alte Hexe, and that she had been hit. 

 We remained pallid at our posts, and in a few 

 moments the beaters approached, bearing one of 

 their companions, who exclaimed that ' it was all 

 out with him,' and lamented being cut off in his 



