d perched
low down on an ash-tree not more than fifty yards away. Perhaps it was
the dead dog; perhaps it was the knowledge that the man was helpless,
that brought him. There he perched, and the keeper reviled him, wishing
that he had but saved one of his cartridges, and forgetting that even
then the barrels of his gun were too full of earth. After a while the
crow flew idly across to the other side of the glade, and went out of
sight; but it was only for a short time, and presently he came back
again. This the crow did several times, always returning to the ash.

The keeper ran over in his mind the people who would probably miss him,
and cause a search to be made. First there was his wife; but once, when
he had been a long time from home, and she in a great alarm had sought
for him, she found him drunk at the alehouse, and he beat her for her
trouble. It was not likely that she would come. The lad who acted as his
assistant (he had but one, for, as previously stated, the former owner
did not shoot) was not likely to look for him either, for not long
since, bringing a message to his superior, he discovered him selling
some game, and was knocked down for his pains. As for his companions at
the alehouse, they would be all out in the fields, and would not
assemble till night: several of them he knew were poachers, and though
glad enough to share his beer would not have looked towards him if in
distress.

The slow hours wore on, and the sun declining a little, the shadow of
the dead oak moved round, and together with his coat sheltered him
fairly well. Weary with the unwonted labour of thinking, the tension of
his mind began to yield, and by-and-by he dropped asleep, lying at full
length upon his back. The crow returned once more to the ash, and looked
at the sleeping man and the dead dog, cleaned his beak against the
bough, and uttered a low croak. Once he flew a little way out towards
them, but there was the gun: it was true he knew very well there was no
powder (for, in the first place, he could not smell any, and, secondly,
if there had been any he knew he should have had the shot singing about
his ears long before this; you see, he could put two and two together),
still there was the gun. The dog does not like the corner where the
walking-stick stands. The crow did not like the gun, though it was stuck
in the ground: he went back to the ash, cleaned his bill, and waited.

Something came stealthily through the grass,