uncovered half of the
landau, they asked themselves once more: "Who is that animal?"

He, very calm, continued to give details: when to attack the beast,
where to strike him, how to despatch him, and about the diamond sight he
affixed to his carbines to enable him to aim correctly in the darkness.
The young girl listened to him, leaning forward with a little panting of
the nostrils, in deep attention.

"They say that Bombonnel still hunts; do you know him?" asked the
brother.

"Yes," replied Tartarin, without enthusiasm... "He is not a clumsy
fellow, but we have better than he."

A word to the wise! Then in a melancholy tone, "_Pas mouain_, they give
us strong emotions, these hunts of the great carnivora. When we have
them no longer life seems empty; we do not know how to fill it."

Here Manilof, who understood French without speaking it, and seemed to
be listening to Tartarin very intently, his peasant forehead slashed
with the wrinkle of a great scar, said a few words, laughing, to his
friends.

"Manilof says we are all of the same brotherhood," explained Sonia to
Tartarin... "We hunt, like you, the great wild beasts."

"_Te!_ yes, _pardi_... wolves, white bears..."

"Yes, wolves, white bears, and other noxious animals..."

And the laughing began again, noisy, interminable, but in a sharp,
ferocious key this time, laughs that showed their teeth and reminded
Tartarin in what sad and singular company he was travelling.

Suddenly the carriages stopped. The road became steeper and made at this
spot a long circuit to reach the top of the Bruenig pass, which could
also be reached on foot in twenty minutes less time through a noble
forest of birches. In spite of the rain in the morning, making the earth
sodden and slippery, the tourists nearly all left the carriages and
started, single file, along the narrow path called a _schlittage_.

From Tartarin's landau, the last in line, all the men got out; but
Sonia, thinking the path too muddy, settled herself back in the
carriage, and as the Alpinist was getting out with the rest, a little
delayed by his equipments, she said to him in a low voice: "Stay! keep
me company..." in such a coaxing way! The poor man, quite overcome,
began immediately to forge a romance, as delightful as it was
improbable, which made his old heart beat and throb.

He was quickly undeceived when he saw the young girl leaning anxiously
forward to watch Bolibine and the Italian, who were talkin