intention was to
ascertain if he was done for, and to finish him off if you found that he
was not, he shut his eyes and pretended to be dead. You stooped over
him, and then made off at full speed. Now, sir, that will be awkward
evidence to get over, and you must see that you will be a long way safer
in France than you would in Weymouth."

Julian sank down, crushed by the blow. He saw that what the poacher said
was true. What would his unsupported assertion go for as against the
dying man's deposition? No doubt Faulkner had stated what he believed to
be the truth, though he might not have given quite a fair account of
what had taken place in the road; still, there would be no
cross-examining him as to what had passed there, and his statement would
stand unchallenged. As things now stood, Julian's own story that he had
pursued a man over the hills, and had lost him, would, wholly
unsupported as it was, be received with absolute incredulity. He had
been at the spot certainly at the time. He had had words with Faulkner;
he had had a gun in his hands; he had come out and leaned over the
wounded man within less than a minute of the shot being fired. The chain
of evidence against him seemed to be complete, and he sat appalled at
the position in which he found himself.

"Look here, youngster," the poacher said, "it is a bad job, and I don't
say it isn't. I am sorry for you, but I ain't so sorry as to go and give
myself up and get hung in your place; but I'll tell you what I will do.
When I get across to France I will draw up a statement and swear it
before a magistrate, giving an account of the whole affair, and I will
put it in a tin case and always carry it about with me. I will direct it
to Colonel Chambers, and whenever anything happens to me it shall be
sent to him. I am five-and-twenty years older than you are, and the life
I lead ain't likely to give me old age. To make matters safer, I will
have two copies made of my statement--one I will leave in the hands of
one of our friends here. The craft I am in may be wrecked some day, or
sunk by one of the cutters; anyhow, whichever way it comes, he is
certain to hear of my death, and I shall tell him that when he hears of
it he is to send that letter to Chambers."

"Thank you," Julian said earnestly. "It may not come for a long time,
but it will be something for me to know that some day or other my name
will be cleared of this horrible accusation; but I would rather have
go