UP THE xMOUNTAIN. 241 



him to lay down his rifle ; he did not, and was just run- 

 ning to a tree, from behind which he would most likely 

 have let fly at me, when I called to him again, ' This is 

 the last time, you rascal ! now then, or Fll fire ; ' and as 

 he did not, I fired. The trigger worked rather hard, so 

 the shot went off a little late, or the bullet must have 

 passed through the very middle of his chest. He reached 

 the tree however, and afterwards went away." 



" And what luck the fellows have," I said : " not many 



weeks ago one of the park-keepers of Prince T fired 



at a poacher he caught in the park. The ball passed his 

 ear, just touching it. And another, since then, shot a 

 poacher's cap from his head : both got off safe." 



" Well," said Neuner, " and it was but the other day 

 a young forester near here sent twenty-six shot into a 

 poacher's back. The fellow took four days to get home. 

 By good luck — or rather by ill luck, I should say — not 

 one shot touched his neck."* 



" Did he take his rifle from him ?" 



u No, the man crawled into a bush, so of course the 

 other could not venture near him ; but next day he came 

 up to the spot again, bringing a comrade with him, to 

 look for the poacher, and see what had become of him. 

 They thought to find him there still, either alive or dead, 

 but he was gone." 



* As these are actual conversations, and not dialogues invented or 

 dressed up for the occasion, I beg the reader not to make the Author 

 answerable for any deficiency of mild forbearance or Christian love, in 

 these or similar expressions of feeling : that is to say, should lie happen 

 to find there is a lack of either. It is the Author's intention, to the 

 best of his ability, to give a plain, faithful picture of what he saw, and 

 to tell what sort of people these mountaineers, and poachers and foresters 

 are, and show hoto they feel inclined totcardseach other. As to a forester 

 feeling anything like human kindness for a poacher, this is demanding 

 more than his sinful mortal nature is capable of; but he has plenty of 

 human hate to give him, inveterate, deep, and unquenchable. 



R 



