398 CHAMOIS HUNTING. 



"* And since you have been a keeper, have you never 

 shot any poachers ?" 



" No/' was the answer ; " but I was once present 

 when two were killed. It was near Branneburg, and I 

 and another were going to shoot a roebuck. I was 

 just passing round a small thicket, while my comrade 

 took the other side, when suddenly I heard a shot. I 

 turned back a step or two, and saw a man running 

 away, and at the same moment almost a second shot 

 sent him staggering to the ground. On I went to the 

 other keeper, and on coming in sight of him, saw a 

 poacher making towards him, gun in hand. However, 

 my unexpected appearance made him turn back ; and 

 running to the dead man, he took his rifle and escaped. 

 My comrade had shot two : one dropped at once, and 

 the other we found some distance oft* in the forest." 



The poachers round Scharnitz knew that from him 

 they need expect no mercy, if he caught them in their 

 depredations. He had said, and he told me so too, that 

 should he ever meet one out on the mountain who 

 resisted instead of surrendering himself instantly, he 

 would fling him over the precipice if they happened to 

 be near one. And they all knew he w r ould infallibly keep 

 his word. This dread of the man kept the territory, vast 

 as it was, which was under Bradler's care, pretty free 

 from predatory incursions. Though he was here today, 

 that was no reason why tomorrow he should not be on 

 the mountains at the other end of the valley : they were 

 never sure of him except on one point, — that once on 

 their track he would follow them unto death. They 

 dreaded him as though he were some incarnate fiend. 



That the animosity is mutual, and that the severity of 

 the gamekeepers toward the poachers is not unfrequently 

 to be accounted for by preceding acts of refined cruelty 



