THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 173 



not get it out of my head, that he had not come to the 

 fort for nothing, and that he had some mischief in view. 



One day it chanced that Petchorin prevailed on me, 

 to accompany him to hunt the boar. I had refused for 

 a long while; the sport, indeed, was any thing but new 

 to me, arid offered me no temptation. He forced me, 

 however, to go with him ; so we set out early in the 

 morning, taking with us an escort of five soldiers. 

 We beat about the bushes and the grass, till ten 

 o'clock, but started no game. ( I think we had better 

 go home,' said I ; ' what is the good of stopping here ? 

 This is plainly no lucky day.' But in spite of heat 

 and fatigue, Gregorii Alexandrovitch would not go 

 back empty handed. That was just his way : whatever 

 he took into his head, must be : it was easy to see his 

 mother had made a spoiled pet of him in his childhood. 

 At last about noon we discovered a boar bang ! 

 bang ! but it would not do ; the boar made for the 

 bulrushes, and escaped ; the day was decidedly an 

 unlucky one. After we had rested, and taken breath 

 a little, we set out on our way home. 



We rode side by side in silence, with our reins 

 slackened, and had nearly reached the fort, which was 

 only concealed from our view by the copse. Suddenly 

 we heard a shot. We looked in each other's faces : 

 the same suspicion flashed upon us both : we galloped 

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