“Oh! how were the people to distinguish one beast from another in the dark?” said the Captain; “you may be thankful they have not shot one another, and that you have not had three or four peasants brought in this morning, instead of three or four deer.”
“Upon my word, there would have been less said if it had been so. However, I must report it to Bjornstjerna, and leave him to do what he pleases. I strongly suspect my dashing white serjeant of being one of the murderers. Give me another chop,—that mutton of yours is the very best thing I have eaten since we left Gäddebäck,—and then you really must get to your posts; we shall have the dref down upon us before we know where we are. Several hares had been showing themselves, and trying to pass the line before I came up, and they will not do that by daytime, unless they are driven. You had better break up the encampment as soon as you have done breakfast: let Jacob stow everything ready for moving, and then send him off to have the carioles harnessed. The skal will break up before noon, and then there will be such a rush of fellows wanting to get home, that the chances are we shall have a Flemish account of our horses, if we do not look sharp after them now. People are in no ways particular on these occasions; there are so many of them, that it is difficult to fix the blame anywhere, and all roguery goes down to the account of mistake and confusion.”
“Very well,” said the Captain, jumping up and carefully loading the rifle which Tom had just been cleaning from the effects of the night’s dews and rain, while the shot-gun had been doing duty in its place by the Captain’s side,—“then here goes; I am going to the foot of the pass, and shall not want Tom this half hour, so he may help Jacob. Birger is going to the look-out place, and he will not want his man either. What will you do, Parson?”
“Why, I think I will take a turn with Moodie down the hållet, when he goes back to inspect his posts. I shall want Torkel to carry my rifle, as I may not come back here; but your two men will be enough to help Jacob. How are we to carry these great beasts?”
“Oh, that is Bjornstjerna’s business. I dare say he has given orders for a sufficient number of carts, or, at all events, we shall have men enough to carry them when the skal breaks up. These are public property,—you need not trouble yourselves about them; what we have to think about is our own little belongings.”
“Public property!” said the Captain; “I did not bargain for that; I want the skins to hang up in my paternal halls, as trophies of the battle.”
“Then you must buy them,” said Moodie; “there will be an auction up the village as soon as the skal breaks up, and by offering a little more than the market price, you may secure anything that you want. It really is a very fair regulation,” he added, observing a shade of discontent on the Captain’s brow. “You shot them, no doubt; but you could not have got a shot at them at all if it had not been for these people driving them. Properly speaking, they belong to Bjornstjerna, but I understand he has given up his right to the men, if so, they will all be converted into brandy before night-fall, you may be quite sure. However, come along,—that last volley was from the dref, and it sounded quite close.”
Moodie’s path was by no means either easy or safe, for he carefully avoided the straight road which would have led him across the shooting line, and contriving to make a circuit and scramble down the face of the cliff at a small fissure, which lay a quarter of a mile to the north of the pass, he attained the rear of the hållet without disturbing or tainting the ground. It may be observed, that there was no such extreme necessity for all this precaution; but Moodie was, after all, an Englishman, and a hunter of but four years’ standing, and, if he was the least bit in the world a martinet, he was not altogether without excuse,—and really his position was, it must be confessed, very scientifically occupied.
At the time that he and the Parson came on the ground, the hållet was just relieving guard, in order to give the morning watch an opportunity of breakfasting before the general turn out; and the scene was extremely picturesque.