icking out ayant a tree. It looked bigger 'n Ah 've seen 'em in
pictures, but Ah 've noticed Fritzes look bigger in th' dark.

"'Now's your chance, la-ad,' I whispers. 'Trip round an' slip th' noose
over 'is horns.'

"'Not me,' growls Batty. 'T'other end's safer.'

"He crawls up to it wi' th' rope all ready, but just as he was going to
slip it over its leg it seemed to stand on its head, feint wi' its left
an' get an upper-cut wi' its right under Ratty's chin. A shadow passed
across th' fa-ace o' the moon, which I judged to be Ratty.

"'Ratty's after altitude records,' says I to meself, 'an' there'll be
th' ellanall of a row if that rope's lost.'

"However, in a few minutes he started to descend an' made a good landing
in some soft bracken. By th' time I'd felt him all over, an' found 'e'd
be fit to go to hospital in th' morning, th' stag had disappeared."

"I never heard of stags kicking like that before," I interrupted.

"Nor hadn't Ratty," said the ancient warrior. "Ah towd you he made a
mistake in Nacheral 'Istory.

"The next night, feeling mighty lonely, Ah walked five kilometres to th'
nearest estaminet, the 'Rondyvoo de Chasers,' an' looked upon the _vang_
while it was _rouge_. When I'd done lookin' and started home th' forest
looked more gho-ost-like than ever wi' th' young firs bowing an'
swaying, and drifts o' cloud peeping through the branches. All at once I
heerd a crackling o' twigs like th' night afore, an' then someone stole
acrost th' road carrying a rope.

"Ah says to myself, 'It's one of th' Chinks poaching, an' it's 'evin
'elp 'im if 'e 's after what Ratty nearly caught last night!'

"Seemingly 'e was, for 'e follered th' noise, an' Ah follered 'im--at a
safe distance. Then, dimlike an' looming big, Ah saw th' stag, an' the
Chink stealing up behind it.

"'Tother end, you fool!' I whispered; an' he jumps round to its head,
slips th' noose round its neck an' leads if off as quiet as a lamb."

"You don't expect me to believe," I broke in indignantly, "that a stag
can be led like a poodle on a lead?"

"P'r'aps not stags," said the veteran, relighting his pipe. "That's weer
Ratty made the mistake that sent 'im to hospital. But you can do it now
and then with a transport mule what's broke away, and the Chink done
it."

* * * * *

[Illustration: _Photographer (to Douglas Devereux, the world-famous
cinema-actor_). "TIKE YER PHOTO, SIR?"]

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