AN UNLUCKY DAY. 139 



where he thought he might find Max, and coming to a 

 kind of " saddle " in the mountain, looked over. His dog 

 had been for some minutes very restless, and thinking 

 it was game he had scented, he reproved him silently by 

 a sign with his hand. But in peering below, instead of 

 chamois he saw a hat, and then another and another; 

 several poachers were there, close beneath him, making 

 their arrangements for the day's operations. He was so 

 near that it is a wonder they did not see his face. Be- 

 hind him all was bare, with only a single latschen where 

 he might conceal himself. He slid back as noiselessly 

 as possible ; and when some yards away from the ridge 

 he cocked his rifle, and passing through a ravine went 

 up the side of a mountain opposite. Here he was quite 

 exposed to their view, and they might easily have seen 

 him, which indeed was the very thing he wished ; for he 

 knew that if they perceived him they would be sure to 

 watch his movements, and wait to see in what direction 

 he went before setting off themselves, and he hoped in 

 the meantime Solacher might come. He went slowly up 

 the path, sitting down occasionally, as if wholly uncon- 

 scious of their neighbourhood. It seems, however, they 

 did not observe him. The young Count then made a cir- 

 cuit, and reached a spot among some rocks, whence he 

 could see the men as they came up out of the hollow. 

 The path they would then have to take crossed an open 

 piece of ground, with hardly a bush upon it, so that they 

 would be quite exposed, whilst he was sheltered by the 

 blocks of stone. Presently he saw their heads appearing, 

 and soon after they came on, one behind the other. He 

 had meanwhile double-shotted his gun, and was now in 

 the act of raising his rifle and calling to the foremost to 

 lay down his weapon, when a voice from the latschen 

 cried out, " Drop your rifle, you fellow of a Count, or it 



