THE CHAMOIS 97 



their bearing, to within fifty yards of where I lay concealed, 

 waiting till they reached the top of the cliff- -in front the 

 leading doe, then several yearlings and two-year-olds, and last, 

 straggling at some distance behind, the two fathers of the tribe. 

 The latter's doom was sealed, for a minute later a right and left 

 had added two good heads to my collection. Far over the 

 mountains did the breeze carry the sound of my shots, and 

 presumably more than one many- jointed German oath came 

 as echo from the angry keepers, whose ideas respecting the 

 ownership of those chamois were not exactly the same as those 

 of the proprietors of the soil where the chamois lived for the 

 greater part of the year. After brittling the bucks and hiding 

 the larger one under some brush, I made for home with the 

 other one in my rucksack. On my way down I stopped at the 

 Alp-hut and sent Hans back for the former, which he was to 

 take to the main valley the following day, an arrangement 

 which prevented my hearing the sequel of the story, and the 

 explanation why those chamois had come my way that 

 morning, until some weeks later. My artful friend Moidl, it 

 appeared, together with another girl from a neighbouring 

 Alp-hut, had planned and had executed the following ruse. 

 Starting long before sunrise from the latter's hut, the two 

 girls with large baskets on their backs had penetrated by 

 break of day into the very heart of the royal preserve, situated 

 on the lower slopes of the peak, on the top of which they knew 

 I would presently be posted. When the wind changed, all the 

 chamois above the girls got scent of them, and the result was 

 soon afterwards communicated to them by my shots. But, 

 unfortunately for the girls, my shots also put the keepers on 

 the qui vive, and before the girls could get back to the 

 Tyrolese side a keeper had spied them and promptly arrested 

 them. Their excuse that they were collecting medicinal 

 roots for their cattle, and had unwittingly wandered across into 

 Bavaria, did not help them, and they were taken down in 

 triumph to the nearest forest-master. Fortunately, however, 

 the judge who heard their case took a more reasonable view, 



II. H 



