in front of
you the object of your hopes,--the well-known and much-desired hut which
seems to invite you to repose after your long day's walk--why, at that
interesting moment, even your own, your very own brother would be a
veritable Bedouin in your eyes, a man to be put out of the way any how,
if he attempted to stop you.

At such a crisis, if a real sportsman were to hear that his house was on
fire, that his banker was off to America, taking with him his wife and
his money, he would not, I say, in such a moment turn his head round to
see which way they went;--Imagine, then, when in order to succeed you
have made yourself out a cheat of the first water, and employed every
possible subterfuge,--conceive what would be the extent of your anger
and indignation, what your disgust,--when on arriving at your coveted
_Mare_, at your oasis, at your paradise, at the spot for which you have
toiled and invented such lies, to find the hut--occupied!

Sometimes you may find in the possessor a _chasseur_, who likes to amuse
himself at your expense,--a jocose fellow, who, hearing you at a
distance working your way through the underwood, and seeing you through
the leaves advancing with eager and rapid steps to the spot, conceals
himself behind the entrance, and as you are just on the point of
entering the hut, your foot just on the step, the droll sportsman puts
his ugly head out of the window, as a yellow tortoise would his out of
his shell, asking you, in most polite terms, what o'clock it is; or if
it should chance to be raining a deluge at the time, remark in
compassionate accents, "Why, sir, you seem rather damp!"

Job was never so unfortunate as to arrive at a _Mare_ already occupied;
had he done so, it is not by any means clear to me that he would have
been able to contain his wrath. For my own part, I have frequently been
beside myself with vexation, and on one occasion was very nearly having
a quarrel to the death with my best friend. We had accidentally met in
the forest, as described, and had deceived each other, as two Greeks of
Pera would, when making a bargain. After our _rencontre_, my friend went
to the right, I to the left; he on the sly, turning and twisting by
footpath and wood to conceal himself from observation; I, on the
contrary, went directly to the spot, and striding away as fast as I
could go, arrived at the _Mare_ about three minutes before him, scarlet
and streaming with exertion, and quite out of breath.