“It’s a quaar being he is entirely, when it’s meself that could barely git into the thicket, and he might have saved his hide by making a short thramp around, rather than plunging through in this shtyle.”

Teddy pressed on for two hours more, when he began to believe that he was close upon the hunter, who must have traveled without intermission to have eluded him thus far.  He therefore maintained a strict watch, and advanced with more caution.

The woods began to thicken, and the Hibernian was brought to a stand-still by the sound of a rustling in the bushes.  Proceeding some distance further, he came upon the edge of a bank or declivity, where he believed the strange hunter had laid down to rest.  The footprints were visible upon the edge of the bank, and at the bottom of the latter was a mass of heavy undergrowth, so dense as effectually to preclude all observation of what might be concealed within it.

It was in the shrubbery, directly beneath him, that Teddy believed the hunter lay.  He must be wearied and exhausted, and no doubt was in a deep sleep.  Teddy was sure, in his enthusiasm, that he had obtained a glimpse of the hunter’s clothes through the interstices of the leaves, so that he could determine precisely the spot where he lay, and even the position of his body—­so eagerly did the faithful fellow’s wishes keep in advance of his senses.

And now arose the all-important question as to what he should do.  He might shoot him dead as he slept, and there is little question but what Teddy would have done it had he not been restrained by the simple question of expediency.  The hunter was alone, and, if slain, all clue to the whereabouts of Mrs. Richter would be irrecoverably lost.  What tidings that might ever be received regarding her, must come from the lips of him who had abducted her.  If he could desperately wound the man, he might frighten him into a confession, but then Teddy feared instead of wounding him merely with his rifle, he would kill him altogether if he attempted to shoot.

After a full half-hour’s deliberation, Teddy decided upon his course of action.  It was to spring knife in hand directly upon the face of the hunter, pin him to the ground and then force the confession from his lips, under a threat of his life, the Irishman mercifully resolving to slay him at any rate, after he had obtained all that was possible from him.

Teddy did not forget his experience of a few months before when the hunter gave him an involuntary bath in the river.  He therefore held his knife firmly in his right hand.  Now that he had concluded what to do, he lost no time in carrying his plan into execution.

He took a crouching position, such as is assumed by the panther when about to spring upon its prey, and then drawing his breath, he leaped downward.

A yelping howl, an impetuous scratching and struggling of the furious mass that he attempted to inclose in his arms, told Teddy that instead of the hunter, he had pounced down upon an innocent, sleeping bear!