ON THE MOUNTAIN. 231 



watchfulness at other things. I think if you had done 

 so they would not have observed you." 



The mention of the Gems Wand reminds me of a cir- 

 cumstance that once occurred near there ; and, being 

 very characteristic, I relate the story as it was told to 

 me a short time ago, by a friend who knew the parti- 

 culars well. These were his words : 



"It was to the young forester's assistant, Kothbacher, 

 that the adventure happened. He was going along 

 the ridge of the mountain the Geidauer Eibel Spitz 

 it is called and looking down, what should he see 

 but twenty-three men standing by the hut. There is 

 a single hut there, you know, on a green aim at the 

 foot of steep wild rocks. Well, he looked at them a 

 long time, and watched what they did, and thought, 

 and thought, ' If I could only get a shot at one of 

 them only at one ! ' And so he kept on thinking 

 how it would be possible to manage, and did not go 

 away from the place, but observed them through his 

 glass, until at last they began to move. There is a 

 little path that leads from the hut right over the Eibel 

 Spitz, and he saw that they were coming up, one be- 

 hind the other ; so he lay still among the latschen, and 

 waited till they approached. By and bye perhaps 

 it was three-quarters of an hour, or may-be an hour 

 after he heard their voices. Presently he saw them 

 winding up the path that led towards him. He al- 

 lowed them to advance till they were about eighty 

 yards distant, and then let fly at the foremost : he hit 

 him right in the middle of the breast, and the man 



