24.2 CHAMOIS HUNTING. 



u And did you hear nothing more about him ?" 



" Oh yes, we knew who he was, and went to see him. 

 He never said anything about the matter, nor complained 

 to the authorities ; and as he had got punishment enough, 

 we did nothing more either." 



I cannot give a better proof of the progress which the 

 lawless spirit of the revolutionary movement had made 

 among the bureaucracy, as well as the peasant class, than 

 by repeating what my companion told me as we walked 

 slowly up the steep mountain path. 



" A short time ago, one of my men met some pea- 

 sants out poaching. Creeping along from bush to rock, 

 he stalked close up to them. He looked at each, but 

 did not recognize any of the party ; the rifle however that 

 one carried he remembered ; it had been sold by auction 

 not long before in the village, when the fire-arms that 

 had been taken from different persons were disposed of. 

 Well, he laid his information ; but the authorities, easy 

 as it would have been to find out the owner, have done 

 little or nothing in the matter." 



" I suppose they are afraid to act, and are besides 

 better inclined to the poachers than to the foresters." 



" Both one and the other," he answered. " And how 

 savagely the villagers can behave to one of us, when 

 they get us in their power, what I am going to tell you 

 will show. Some time ago a poacher was missing from 

 Partenkirchen. Between one and two hundred peasants 

 went out to search for him, and at last found him shot 

 dead. They instantly fancied he had been killed by one 

 of us foresters ; but it was really not the case, for none 

 of us knew anything about the matter. He had, with- 

 out doubt, been shot accidentally by a comrade. Well, 

 as soon as they found the corpse, the whole band with 

 shouts went to the house of the assistant-keeper, but he 

 was out. At last thev found him, and taking him to 



