150 CHAMOIS HUNTING. 



a voice from the latschen cried out, " Drop your rifle, 

 you fellow of a Count, or it will be the worse for you !" 

 Quick as lightning the other men turned round on 

 hearing these words, and every muzzle was pointed to 

 the spot where the youth was hidden. He of course 

 did as he was bidden ; and the men, not without plenty 

 of abuse, went cautiously on their way, one of them 

 always keeping ready to fire in case he should move 

 or attempt to send a bullet after them. 



It was evident that the man behind the latschen 

 must have been there already when the Count took 

 his station among the rocks, having been stationed 

 as sentinel in case of alarm. The poachers knew the 

 youth, which accounts for their letting him escape so 

 easily : had Max Solacher been in his place, he would 

 hardly have lived to tell the tale. 



The men had not been long out of sight when the 

 Count heard a shot ; he imagined it was from Maxl's 

 rifle, and that, on coming up, he had met the poachers 

 and killed one. 



But he was mistaken : Solacher, as he went along, 

 had merely fired at some animal below him. Hardly 

 had he done so when six men, the same mentioned 

 above, rushed out of a hut on an Aim lower down, 

 and looked about scared and astonished. But they 

 could not discover whence the shot proceeded, and 

 this bewildered them all the more. In order to be 

 safe from a surprise they went to the middle of a 

 large bare spot, without shelter of any kind, where 

 grew a solitary tree, and beneath this they seated 



