THE ALM HUTTE. 125 



The case of the Tyrolian on the Plan Berg is by no 

 means a solitary one of the kind. Occasionally, too, 

 the forester's wife will wait and watch in vain for her 

 husband's return. It is not long since that the body 

 of one of the assistant-foresters of Berchtesgaden was 

 found upon the mountain : it had been drawn aside 

 from the path and flung among the latschen, which 

 accounted for its not being found until several months 

 after he had been shot. The poacher was evidently 

 hidden from view, and had allowed him to come along 

 the path within a yard or two of the muzzle of his 

 rifle ; for the dead man's clothes were still black and 

 singed where the ball had entered. It had passed 

 through the middle of his chest. 



In about two hours we arrived at the hut. It 

 stood on a pleasant pasturage, and facing it rose the 

 mountains partly covered with forest, while on one 

 side a high rock jutted abruptly up into the sky. 

 Behind was a gentle wooded slope ; thither we now 

 went, and looked toward the mountain opposite us. 

 We examined every part with the naked eye and 

 with our glasses, but not a creature was to be seen. 

 We watched for more than an hour -, and then turning 

 toward the rock that rose above the valley presently 

 saw a chamois grazing, now visible and now disappear- 

 ing among the herbage. Shortly after we discovered 

 another nearer the summit ; and having watched them 

 for a long time, as it was getting cold and dusk, we 

 went toward our hut. 



" We won't disturb them," said Maxl, " for today 



