"'All right, Padre, we'll get it, me an' you. 'Alf hour early dis time. Bateese know place well. Pat tend horses, you bring rifle, an' come wid me. Sacre! Big fonne.'
"'It's a go,' replied the Chaplain, and jumping from the sleigh, he had a word with the Colonel. In another minute he was back again.
"'And what shall be your choice, Madam?' was his question. 'Rump steak, devilled kidneys, or sirloin?'
"'When you shoot your deer, Chaplain, I will tell you,' was my laughing answer, for I had not the remotest idea that the suggestion would be carried out.
"But in another minute, Mr. Evans and Bateese, each with a rifle over his shoulder, plunged into the forest along the winding of the Wapskeheden river. I was almost sorry then over my suggestion, for I did not know what might happen before they returned, and, woman-like, felt nervous. Half an hour later when the sun was setting, and the trees beginning to snap and crack with the frost of the coming night, we heard a couple of shots, but they were far away.
"'They've found their game at last,' said Sir George. 'I suppose Bateese is a good shot, though I never heard of the Chaplain distinguishing himself in that line."
"'He was one of the crack men of the 91st before he was transferred to the 100th,' said Captain Payne, who with Harold joined Sir George and myself as we stood by the fire.
"It was pretty dark before the hunters returned. When within hailing distance they shouted for help. Then all came in together dragging a big buck by the horns.
"'Who shot him?' was the general question.
"'Oh, de curé he be goot shot,' said Bateese.