'
Just then I heard a rustle, and turning, saw Claude toiling down to
me over the hill-side. He joined me, footsore and weary, but in
great excitement; for the first minute or two he could not speak, and
at last, -
'Oh, I have seen such a sight!--but I will tell you how it all was.
After I left you I met a keeper. He spoke civilly to me--you know my
antipathy to game and those who live thereby: but there was a wild,
bold, self-helping look about him and his gun alone there in the
waste--and after all he was a man and a brother. Well, we fell into
talk, and fraternized; and at last he offered to take me to a
neighbouring hill and show me "sixty head of red-deer all together;"
and as he spoke he looked quite proud of his words. "I was lucky,"
he said, "to come just then, for the stags had all just got their
heads again." At which speech I wondered; but was silent, and
followed him, I, Claude the Cockney, such a walk as I shall never
take again. Behold these trousers--behold these hands! scratched to
pieces by crawling on all-fours through the heather.
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