HUNTING A POACHER 203 



and was tolerably swift of foot in those days, which 

 gave me confidence. I took out my pocket glass, 

 and eyed my man. He was no novice : but 

 worked his fish with great skill. At length he 

 drew him on the shore, and gave him a settler 

 with a rap of a stone on the back of his head ; he 

 then, honest man, pried around him with great 

 circumspection, and seeing no one, he took the 

 salmon by the tail, and, full of internal content- 

 ment, deposited it in his well -contrived pocket: 

 he then waded across to the south side of the river, 

 with an intention, as it seemed, of revisiting his 

 household gods and having a broil. 



Charlie now arose from his lair, and scrambled 

 down the steep. The alarm was given, but he of 

 the salmon had a good start, with the river 

 between him and his pursuer. So he stopped for 

 a moment on the haugh to make out what was 

 going forward on all sides, much after the fashion 

 of an old hare, who runs a certain distance when 

 she apprehends anything personal, then rests for a 

 moment or two, and shifts her ears in order to 

 collect the news from all quarters of the compass. 

 Even so did our friend, and having satisfied himself 

 that he was a favoured object of attraction, he was 

 coy and took to flight incontinently ; I now sprang 

 up from the firs, the game being fairly afoot, and 

 kept the upper ground. The pursuit became close 

 and hot, but as the fugitive, like Johnny Gilpin, 

 carried weight, I soon closed with him. 



" You seem in a hurry, my good friend ; your 

 business must be pressing. What makes you run 

 so?" 



