The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-01-17

4
weeks board in my pocket.
THE gendarme released his hold and
stood looking at the young fellow. The
day was hot and the village lookup
two miles away That the rabbit was
small and the Mayor an inveterate
sportsman were also undeniable facts.
Next time he said sententiously,
with a scowl, do you let his Honor
carry the game home in his own bag
and he walked away.
"Oh, you just ought to have seen
Riddles skip around when a turn in
the road shut out the cooked hat and
crossbelts and heard him pour out his
thanks. His name was Wilhelm he
cried out; it had only been by chance
that he got separated from his friends.
Where did live? Would let him give
me the rabbit for a stew for my dinner?
Was / the painter who l. come to the
inn? If so, he had heard of me. Could
he and his friends call upon me that
| night?
HE would never forget my kindness.
| What was the use of being a gentleman
II you couldn't help another gentleman
out of a scrape? AS for Herr Rabbit
the poor little Herr Rabbt-here he
stroked his fur-what more honorable
end than gracing the table CT the
honorable painter? All, these dogs Of
the law-when would they learn not
to NEEDLE with things that did not con-
Germ them?"
And did Riddles come to your lnn
Marny?" I asked merely as a prod to
keep him going.
Yes, a week later, and with the same
gendarme. The cobbler in the village,
who sat all day long pegging at his
laI .,.lg Il 81 A.
goose for the whole village and knew
the movements OF every inhabitant,
man woman and child, and who for
some reason hated Riddles, on being in
terviewed by the gendarme had stated
positively that the Mayor had not passed
his corner with his gun and four dogs
on the day of Fiddles's arrest.
This being the case the gendarme
had rearrested the culprit and would
have taken him at once to the lookup
had not Riddles threatened .the officer
with false arrest. Would the Herr
| Painter accompany the officer and hinIt
self to the house of the Mayor and settle
the matter as to whether his Honor was
or was not out hunting on that par
ticular morning?
"All this time Riddles was looking
about the dining room Of che inn, TAX
ing in the supper table. the rows of
mugs, especially the landlady, who was
frightened half out of her wits by
cooked hats presence, and more espe-
cially still little Gretchen-such a
plump. rosy checked, blue eyed little
Dutch girl with two Marguerite pig
tails down her back. Gretchen served
the beer and was the life Of the place.
Poor young man. she said to the land
lady. who had by this time come 60 the
same conclusion and he is so good look
ing and with such lovely eyes.D
when we got to the Mayors the old
fellow was asleep in big armchair. his
. pipe out, his legs far apart-a keg
shaped kind of a man, with a head
e fiattened on his shoulders like stove
1 lid, who said 'Ach Gott every five min
utes and spluttered when he talked.
- 81 went in first. leaving the two on
$ the porch until / should senu for them
- I didn't know how things were going to
i turn out and had become a little
anxious. had run up from Munich
n for few weeks outdoor work and
I wanted to stay out, not behind iron bars
= for abetting crime.
Your supreme Highness, I began
4 have heard of your great prowess as
70 a sportsman, and 40 / wanted to pay my
n respects. too am a shootist-an Amer
J. lean shoOtst.'
II Here ] launched out on our big game
q q had been six months In the Rockies
before | came abroad and knew what
v was talking about. He was wide awak,
d by this time and was listening. Drop
y ping into the chair which he had drawn
q up for me, l told him of our elk-'A!
@ big as horses, your Honor; of oul
s mountain lions-savage beasts tina
+ could climb trees and fall upon the de
d fenceless; of our catamounts, deer
* wolves. bears, foNes-a!l these we kille'
& without molcstation from anybody!
d told him how all American sportsmel
G were like the Nmrods Of old. How
u CALLING then, for true shootist to b.
u misunderstood, decried, denounced an
Is arrested for so insignificant beastie
u a rabbit!
This indignity my very dear frien
y Herr Wilhelm Fuedels-Shimmer ha
l; suffered-a most estimable young man
ID careless, perhaps, in his interpretatio
in of the law, but who would not be; tina
DR. is, what sportsman would not be? ha
in Wilhelm's defence not only backe
ID up his story but had gone so far as
IN hazard the opinion to the officer OF tina
Id Tuesday. or Friday or Saturday, but o
n that very Wednesday that mis- suprem
II highness had been wont to follow wit
II his four accomplished dogs the tracks {
IN the nimble Colonial. Would his high
ed ness therefore be good enough to con
centrate his giant brain on his past If
l and fish from out his memory the e~aC
day on which he last hunted? Will
ne that was going on l would excuse my
lie self long enough to bring in the allege
criminal.
~ ''Fiddles stepped in with the cas-
grace of a courtier accustomed to meet
20 ing a Mayor every day of his life, an
he after a confirmatory wink from m
Is boldly asserted that he had followed b'
hind his Honor-had really assisted
, " driving the game his way. His Hon'
of might not remember his face, but !
err surely must remember that his hon
ng able Honor had extraordinarily good luC
se that day The rabbit in controversy
ed very small quite baby rabbit-wt