I saw the cane-brake in motion. The tall culms vibrated and crackled
under the heavy tread of a man, who the next moment emerging into the
open ground, advanced at a slinging trot towards the water!
He was alone and afoot--there were no dogs with him--but the long rifle
poised upon his shoulder, and the hunting accoutrements around his body,
told me at a glance he was the owner of the deer-hounds.
His black bushy beard, his leggings, and buckskin shirt, his red
neckcloth and raccoon cap--but above all, the brutal ferocity of his
visage, left me in no doubt as to who this character was. The
description of the runaway answered him in every particular. He could
be no other than _Ruffin the man-hunter_!