The Poacher. 355 



yet," proved how sorry he felt for the loss of the prize which he 

 considered so fairly within his grasp. Several of the keepers had 

 broken heads, but none were seriously hurt except the man who 

 was shot in the thigh, and one of the young watchers who gave 

 chase to a poacher for some hundred yards into the forest. The 

 poacher, finding himself sorely pressed, suddenly threw himself 

 down — the watcher tumbled over him, and, before he could rise, 

 was stunned by a blow from the poacher's bludgeon, who then 

 made his escape. The prisoners, with their booty, were marched 

 off to Johnson's lodge, and next morning were taken before a 

 neighbouring magistrate, and committed for trial to the next 

 assizes. 



When the keepers mustered, one was missing — the young watcher 

 who had followed the poacher into the wood. In vain his com- 

 rades shouted — in vain the shrill whistle which every one of them 

 carried at night, sounded through the wood. No answer was re- 

 turned, and they were obliged to leave the forest without him, 

 rightly judging that he would turn up before morning -, and so he 

 did, but not till daylight, when he staggered up to the head keeper's 

 lodge, pale as death, sick and faint j his head and face covered with 

 blood, and wearing altogether so ghastly an appearance that the 

 other keepers scarcely knew him. The poacher had left him 

 stunned and disabled, and it was probably a long time before he 

 came to himself. When he woke up, all was quiet in the wood j 

 and he then knew that his comrades had left him, and he must fine? 

 his way home as he best could. His keeper's instinct soon put him 

 in the right path, and partly by walking, partly by crawling on all- 

 fours, he managed to find his way to the edge of the covert. The 

 night was now as dark as pitch, for the moon had gone down. He 

 was staggering along a narrow ride in the forest, when his foot 

 struck against something that lay across the path, and he stumbled 

 over the dead body of the young poacher who had headed the net- 

 ting party. He had been stabbed in the side with a dog-spear, but 

 had run as far as his strength could carry him, till he fell dead fronj 

 interna] hemorrhage. His poor little dog kept watch over the body, 



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