98 HEIMAN'S DATCH. 



windowless frames of the ruined villa, the big 

 trees branch in, creepers and blackberry bushes 

 grow merrily inside, while from the very hearth, 

 disturbed by our intrusion, a scared woodcock 

 bustles away. The spot had evidently been used 

 as a camping place by drovers before our day, for 

 all round the white skulls of cattle bleached on the 

 shore and on the sward, while remains of camp- 

 fires were numerous, although there were none of 

 recent date. All this warned us to be careful, so 

 that our first step, after turning out our horses, 

 was to secrete all our provisions, &c. in a hole 

 beneath the flooring, and to destroy, as far as pos- 

 sible, all traces of our presence. 



Having done this, we turned to the green wood, 

 and indeed it was not far to go. Two dozen strides, 

 and we had almost to cut our way through the 

 dense undergrowth. After a time we forced our 

 way to more open forest, and here we parted. Not 

 twenty minutes afterwards there was a report that 

 set the forest shrieking. Something came crashing 

 down hill past me, and rumbled away into silence 

 down a deep tree-covered gorge. In a few minutes 

 I arrived on the scene of action, and found Ivan 

 and his mongrel pointer gloating over a fine sow 

 he had slain. Having gralloched her, we hoisted 

 her on to the top of a blasted and broken oak, 

 and, there impaled, she presented to us a ghastly, 

 and to the jackals who soon arrived a no doubt 



