358 CHAMOIS HUNTING. 



The mishap was indeed particularly vexatious ; for, 

 had they come but a little nearer, I might easily have 

 shot both, right and left ; and it would have been a 

 pleasant thing to recur to in after time. 



The rest of the day we saw nothing. At the hut 

 the herd foretold change of weather. " The cattle were 

 so wild," he said, "they had broken the pole of the 

 waggon that morning. He was quite sure it would not 

 be fine on the morrow ; it's a sure sign when the cattle 

 are so restless. As to the almanack writers, they may 

 say what they like, the cattle are never wrong." 



We now turned our steps homeward. As we went 

 along, Bauer told me how, close to the spot we were 

 passing, he had once met some poachers. " There 

 were five of them," he said, " and I crept through the 

 bushes, and got quite near them unobserved. At last 

 they saw me, and called out that I should make the 

 best of my way off, or they would fire." 



" And did you go ?" 



" Of course not. I was lying on the ground behind 

 a great piece of stone, and I knew they could not 

 touch me. No ; I stopped, and looked at them well. 

 I recognized them all, and gave their names to the 

 Police, but nothing was done to them." 



A day or two after I arranged with Bauer to go up 

 the Kramer : though I knew there was little chance of 

 meeting chamois there, I still wished to go ; for it is 

 possible to be prepossessed by the face of a mountain, 

 as well as by the human countenance, and this was 

 now the case with me. There was a hut there, or 



