ten stump and cast
glances, more sleepy than the horizon, over the entrance of the glen
which was almost overgrown with shrubbery and underbrush. Now and then
his eyes manifested life and assumed their characteristic glassy
glitter, but immediately afterwards be half shut them again, and
yawned, and stretched, as only lazy shepherds may. His dog lay some
distance away near the cows which, unconcerned by forest laws, feasted
indiscriminately on tender saplings and the grass, and snuffed the fresh
morning air.

Out of the forest there sounded from time to time a muffled, crashing
noise; it lasted but a few seconds, accompanied by a long echo on the
mountain sides, and was repeated about every five or eight minutes.
Frederick paid no attention to it; only at times, when the noise was
exceptionally loud or long continued, he lifted his head and glanced
slowly down the several paths which led to the valley.

Day was already dawning; the birds were beginning to twitter softly and
the dew was rising noticeably from the ground. Frederick had slid down
the trunk and was staring, with his arms crossed back of his head, into
the rosy morning light softly stealing in. Suddenly he started, a light
flashed across his face, and he listened a few moments with his body
bent forward like a hunting dog which scents something in the air. Then
he quickly put two fingers in his mouth and gave a long, shrill whistle.
"Fido, you cursed beast!" He threw a stone and hit the unsuspecting dog
which, frightened out of his sleep, first snarled and then, limping on
three feet and howling, went in search of consolation to the very place
from which the hurt had come.

At the same moment the branches of a near-by bush were pushed back
almost without a rustle, and a man stepped out, dressed in a green
hunting jacket, with a silver shield on his arm and his rifle cocked in
his hand. He cast a hurried glance over the glen and stared sharply at
the boy, then stepped forward, nodded toward the shrubbery, and
gradually seven or eight men came into sight, all in the same costume,
with hunting knives in their belts and cocked weapons in their hands.

"Frederick, what was that?" asked the one who had first appeared. "I
wish the cur would die on the spot. For all he knows, the cows could
chew the ears off my head."

"The scoundrel has seen us," said another. "Tomorrow you'll go on a trip
with a stone about your neck," Frederick went on, and kicked at the dog