WAKWICK WOODLANDS. 159 



way, was fully justified not twenty minutes afterward, by 

 his galloping back, neck or nothing, to get his pocket 

 handkerchief, which he had left "in course," as Tom said, 

 in his dressing-gown beside the fire. 



"Come, bustle — bustle!" Hany added, as he put on his 

 hunting cap and pulled a huge pair of fen boots on, reach- 

 ing to the midthigh, which Timothy had garnished with a 

 pair of bright English spurs. In another minute they 

 were all on horseback, trotting away at a brisk pace to- 

 ward the little glen, wherein, according to Jem's last re- 

 port, the stag was harbored. It was in vain that during 

 their quick ride the old man was entreated to inform 

 them where they were to take post, or what they were to 

 do, as he would give them no reply, nor any information 

 whatever. 



At last, however, when Forester rejoined them, after 

 his return to the village, he turned short off from the high 

 road to the left, and as he passed a set of bars into a wild 

 hill pasture, struck into a hard gallop. 



Before them lay the high and ridgy head of Round 

 Top, his flanks sloping toward them, in two broad pine- 

 clad knobs, with a wild streamlet brawling down between 

 them, and a thick tangled swamp of small extent, but full 

 of tall dense thornbushes, matted with vines and cat-briers, 

 and carpeted with a rich undergrowth of fern and winter- 

 green, and whortleberries. To the right and left of tho 

 two knobs or spurs just mentioned, were two other deep 

 gorges, or dry channels, bare of brushwood, and stony — 

 rock-walled, with steep precipitous ledges toward the 

 mountain, but sloping easily up to the lower ridges. As 

 they reached the first of these. Tom motioned Forester 

 to stop. 



"Stand here," he whispered, "close in here, jest behind 

 this here crag — and look out hereaways toward the village. 

 If he comes down this runway, kill him, but mind you 

 doesn't show a hair out of this corner; for Archer, he'll 

 stand next, and if so be he crosses from the swamp hole 

 hereaways, you'll chance to get a bullet. Be still, now, as 

 :i mouse, and tie vour horse here in the cove! — Now, 

 lads"— 



And off he set again, rounded the knob, and making 

 one slig-ht motion toward the nook, wherein he wished that 



