COMBAT BETWEEN A KEEPER AND DEER-STEALER. 281 



went at the one who was most notorious, and of 

 whom many of the keepers stood in great dread, a 

 much bigger man than himself, and Toomer pursued 

 the other. Hall was armed with a stick and loaded 

 pistol, and soon came up with his man, who turned 

 round with the barrel of his gun and commenced a 

 furious attack. At it they Avent, up and down ; in the 

 light Hall was disarmed of his stick, and in the inky 

 darkness under the trees near the road from Brocken- 

 ham to Lyndhurst, it flew from his hand he knew not 

 whither. His head was then laid open in several 

 places, and he could scarcely see for blood ; he had 

 been kicked too in the body most severely, and the 

 murderous attack of his assailant still continued. 

 Had Hall fired, he would have been fully justified, 

 for it would have been in defence of his life ; but 

 the brave fellow abstained, and closing with his man 

 he used the pistol only as a weapon to strike with, 

 and with it he fractured the deer-stealer's ^nder jaw, 

 knocked out a number of his teeth, and got him 

 down. The man then surrendered, praying Hall not 

 to strike him any more. Hall knelt on him, and as 

 he had surrendered, refrained from further punish- 

 ment, when, at that moment, the returning foot- 

 steps of Toomer were heard, who had received a 

 blow on his head, which he said had stunned him, 

 but without a prisoner, the other fellow having 

 escaped; and when Hall's surrendered antagonist 

 heard the footsteps, he took them for those of his 

 companion, and calling out to him to hasten to his 

 assistance "to kill Hall," he suddenly freed himself 

 from the nearly fainting antagonist who had hold of 

 him, and assaulted him as savagely as before, but 

 luckily in vain. Hall knocked him down again, and, 



