A warm embrace, an expression of his delight at having her back again, a hurried enquiry after Mr. Hazlehurst, and then Harry rushed into his narrative of the poaching affair, and in his eagerness to detail every circumstance of a matter which interested him so deeply, did not notice the tameness of Alice’s sympathy, or the lukewarm manner in which she seconded his virtuous indignation against the miscreants who had all but murdered good, honest Markum: “And small thanks to them that it was ‘all but,’ for, if ever a scoundrel meant mischief, that scoundrel was Jack Hargrave.” Alice saw this was no time to urge her suit, and so merely confined herself to the general remark, that it was a dreadful affair for all parties, and that she pitied the wives of the wretched men who had committed the rash act, as much as anybody concerned in the matter; to which Harry replied:-- “That it served them right for marrying poachers, and that they might think they were lucky not to be the victims themselves, for that a fellow who would take to poaching was capable of cutting his wife’s throat, or of any other enormity.” Mr. Gouger’s report was, on the whole, satisfactory. Markum was going on well, though he (Gouger) could not pronounce him out of danger; the injury was very serious, and several days must elapse before the ulterior consequences would be apparent; or, as the doctor himself remarked, the effect of extraneous particles of plumbago, or lead, introduced into the vital system by the sudden expansion of saltpetre and other explosive compounds compressed within the narrow limits of a gun-barrel, and discharged thence by ignition, according to the natural laws of projectiles, was most subtle and deleterious, leading sometimes to the total destruction of animal life, at others to a concussion of the nervous system; or again, &c. &c.: from which sapient opinion Harry collected that Brodie need not be sent for immediately.