He  had  noticed  the  hedge  before  ;  the  keeper  had  stopped
up  a  gap  in  it  the  day  before,  at  the  place  where  it  came  down
to  the  water,  with  some  old  hurdles  and  dry  thorns.  He  drew
himself  up  behind  his  alder,  looking  out  from  behind  it  cau-
tiously toward  the  point  from  which  the  sound  came.  He
could  just  make  out  the  hedge  through  the  mist,  but  saw
nothing.
But  now  the  crackling  began  again,  and  he  was  sure  that  a
man  was  forcing  his  way  over  the  keeper's  barricade.  A  mo-
ment afterward  he  saw  a  figui-e  drop  from  the  hedge  into  the
slip  in  which  he  stood.  He  drew  back  his  head  hastily,  and  his
heart  beat  like  a  hammer  as  he  waited  the  approach  of  the
stranger.  In  a  few  seconds  the  suspense  was  too  much  for
him,  for  again  there  was  perfect  silence.  He  peered  out  a  sec-
ond time  cautiously  round  the  tree,  and  now  he  could  make
out  the  figure  of  a  man  stooping  by  the  water-side  just  above


420  TOM    BEOWN    AT    OXFORD.
