DEER-STALKING. 223 



escape him, to all appearance involuntarily, in alternate 

 tones of surprise, doubt, incredulity, astonishment, 

 and finally of awe-stricken certainty. Then, after 

 some unintelligible confidences to Archie, he turns 

 to me, and in deep, reverential tones, a sort of con- 

 versational " dim religious light," he almost falters 

 out Highlander as he is and unaccustomed to 

 bad grammar the illiterate exclamation, "It's him!" 

 "Who?" "What?" I inquire more with my 

 eyes than my tongue, for I am utterly at a 

 loss for the cause of this sudden change from 

 his usual calmness. "It's 'Clubfoot' himself!" he 

 tremulously replies. 



And then a sudden fierce joy, not without a 

 sharp pang of anxiety, nearly akin to fear, seized 

 on my heart, some such feeling as might have 

 been experienced by some subordinate or second- 

 class commander in one of the old campaigns at 

 suddenly discovering that the force opposed to 

 him was led by Napoleon himself. For " Club- 

 foot," so called from a peculiar formation disclosed 



