eddy, with a shout of exultation, sprung forward, confident
that he had secured their persecutor at last, but the Irishman was
caught by the same obstacle and "floored" even more completely than
his enemy.

"Bad luck to it!" he exclaimed, frantically scrambling to his feet,
"but it has knocked me deaf and dumb. I'll have ye, owld haythen, yit,
or me name isn't Teddy McFadden, from Limerick downs."

Teddy's fall had given the fugitive quite an advantage, and as he was
fully as fleet of foot as the Irishman, the latter was unable to
regain his lost ground. Still, it wasn't in his nature to give in, and
he dashed forward as determinedly as ever. To his unutterable chagrin,
however, it was not long before he realized that the footsteps of his
enemy were gradually becoming more distant. His rage grew with his
adversary's gradual escape, and he would have pursued had he been
certain of rushing into destruction itself. All at once he made a
second fall, and, instead of recovering, went headlong down into a
gully, fully a dozen feet in depth.

Teddy, stunned by his heavy fall, lay insensible for some fifteen or
twenty minutes. He returned to consciousness with a ringing sensation
in his ears, and it was some time before he could recall all the
circumstances of his predicament. Gradually the facts dawned upon him,
and he listened. Everything was oppressively still. He heard not the
voice of his master, and not even the sound of any of the denizens of
the wood.

His first movement was to feel for his rifle, which he had brought
with him in his descent, and which he found close at hand. In the act
of rising, he caught the sound of a footstep, and saw, at the same
instant, the outlines of a person that he knew at once could be no
other than the man whom he had been pursuing. The hunter was about a
dozen feet distant, and seemed perfectly aware of the Irishman's
presence, for he stood with folded arms, facing his pursuer. The
darkness prevented Teddy's discovering anything more than his enemy's
outline But this was enough for a shot to do its work. Teddy
cautiously brought his rifle to his shoulder, and lifted the hammer.
Pointing it at the breast of his adversary, so as to be sure of his
aim, he pulled the trigger, but there was no response. The gun either
was unloaded, or had been injured by its rough usage. The dull click
of the lock reached the ear of the target, who asked, in a low, gruff
voice:

"Why do _you_ seek me? Y