ts
confines, where perhaps the beloved Cora was imprisoned, a miserable
and pining captive. The thought maddened him, and he pressed forward
so rashly that he soon found himself completely entrapped in a network
of briers and brambles. Carefully withdrawing into the open wood, it
suddenly occurred to him, that if the hunter had passed through the
thicket, there was no earthly necessity of his doing it. He could pass
around, and, if the footprints were seen upon the opposite side, it
only remained to follow them, while, if they were not visible, it
certified that he was still within the thicket and he could therefore
shape his actions accordingly.

Teddy therefore made his way with patience and care around one end of
the thicket. He found the distance more considerable than he at first
supposed. It was full an hour before he was fairly upon the opposite
side. Here he made a careful search and was soon rewarded by finding
unmistakable footprints, so that he considered it settled that the
hunter had passed straight through the thicket.

"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 questi