TRAMP AND THE FELONS. 327 



up Ills hat. He reached the spot, and the signal was 

 made of the disappearance of the deer. Expectmg 

 the worst, that she had been carried off, I hastened 

 to the place, and there, sure enough, was where her 

 throat had left a sanguinary trace as she had been 

 dragged out of sight into some furze, and then all 

 traces of her disappeared. It was in cold, harsh, dry- 

 weather, and on the hills the footstep of a man 

 made no impression, while over the bogs, if he stepped 

 on the tufts of moss, they rose again after the step 

 had passed, and no trace remained in that locality to 

 denote a passage. I confess to have been angered 

 by this incident, as I did not think that there was a 

 man who, in the daylight and at a risk of being seen, 

 would have attempted to steal anything of mine ; so, 

 as a last hope, I ordered my man to run off to a dis- 

 tant hill, where he could command a view of the low 

 lands on one side, and I sent two of the woodmen, 

 who had been by when I killed the deer, also, in dif- 

 ferent directions : the steps of all three of these men 

 were more or less stained with the blood of the deer, 

 and they had all handled her in pulling her from the 

 bog to a dry place. To this I beg the reader's par- 

 ticular attention. The men having gone on their 

 several missions, I made the usual sign to Thor that 

 I had adopted to put him on the scent of a stricken 

 deer, which he tracked very well, if the trail was quite 

 fresh, nearly as well as a hound ; and I endeavoured 

 to obtain assistance through him. .But it was of no 

 avail ; he always went back to the spot where the doe 

 had lain dead. While endeavouring to make Thor 

 understand my loss. Tramp, who was at my heels, 

 stepped in front, and, looking up in my face with 

 a very peculiar expression, suddenly put his nose 



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