hold!" cried the delinquent, "don't be too hasty, Niels! you are not
hunting now; we can talk matters to rights."

"No more prating," answered the exasperated keeper, "thou shalt perish
in thy misdeeds!"

"Niels, Niels!" cried Mads, "here are witnesses; you have now got me
safe enough, I cannot go from you; why not take me to the manor-house,
and let the owner do as he likes with me, and you will get good
drink-money into the bargain."

At this moment the traveller rode up, and cried out to the keeper, "For
heaven's sake, friend, do not commit a crime, but hear what the man has
to say."

"The man is a great offender," said the keeper, uncocking his gun, and
laying it across the pommel of his saddle, "but as the strange gentleman
intercedes for him, I will give him his life. But thou art mad, Mads!
for now thou wilt come to drive a barrow before thee[7] for the rest of
thy life. If thou hadst let me shoot thee, all would now have been
over." Thereupon he put his horse into a trot, and the traveller, who
was also going to Ansbjerg, kept them company.

They proceeded a considerable way without uttering a word, except that
the keeper, from time to time, broke silence with an abusive term, or an
oath. At length the deer-stealer began a new conversation, to which
Niels made no answer, but whistled a tune, at the same time taking from
his pocket a tobacco-pouch and pipe. Having filled his pipe, he
endeavoured to strike a light, but the tinder would not catch.

"Let me help you," said Mads, and without getting or waiting for an
answer, struck fire in his own tinder, blew on it, and handed it to the
keeper; but while the latter was in the act of taking it, he grasped the
stock of the gun which lay across the pommel, dragged it with a powerful
tug out of the strap, and sprang three steps backwards into the heather.
All this was done with a rapidity beyond what could have been expected
from the broad-shouldered, stout and somewhat elderly deer-stealer.

The poor gamekeeper, pale and trembling, roared with rage at his
adversary, without the power of uttering a syllable.

"Light thy pipe," said Mads, "the tinder will else be all burned out;
perhaps it is no good exchange thou hast made; this is certainly
better,--"here he patted the gun,--"but thou shalt have it again when
thou givest me my own back."

Niels instantly took the other from behind him, held it out to the
deer-stealer with one hand, at the same time stretching