MEETING WITH POACHERS. 247 



would not have ventured after me ; and if they had, I 

 should quietly have brought down the nearest fellow, 

 and that would have stopped them. They would have 

 hardly liked to risk having the contents of my second 

 barrel sent into one of them ; and even if I had fired 

 that, I could easily have crept away without their find- 

 ing me." 



I am quite sure that all this was true. Once in the 

 latschen, he would have felt perfectly safe ; being able 

 through the boughs to watch his enemy's advance, 

 without being seen himself, and thus might bring him 

 down with a ball, or remain quiet, as he found advis- 

 able. 



As he knew the ground better than myself, I fol- 

 lowed his directions exactly, without argument; in- 

 deed for this there was no time. He, on his part, 

 never having been with me under like circumstances, 

 could not tell how I should get on, and was naturally 

 unwilling to stay on the mountain, since any awk- 

 wardness on my side might have proved fatal to me, 

 if not to both of us. Berger's sole anxiety was for 

 my safety, and it was this alone which caused his pre- 

 cipitate retreat. 



When we reached home, having taken the most bye 

 ways, in order to meet no one who might tell the men 

 of Hundsham they had seen us returning so unusu- 

 ally early on that day, the forester said it would be use- 

 less to go out again at present, for the game having 

 been disturbed would not return to its usual haunts 

 so quickly. I therefore bade my kind host and hostess 



