The Man Hunt

The woods stretch deep to the mountain side,     And the brush is wild where a man may hide.     They have brought the bloodhounds up again     To the roadside rock where they found the slain.     They have brought the bloodhounds up, and they     Have taken the trail to the mountain way.     Three times they circled the trail and crossed;     And thrice they found it and thrice they lost.     Now straight through the trees and the underbrush     They follow the scent through the forest's hush.     And their deep-mouthed bay is a pulse of fear     In the heart of the wood that the man must hear.     The man who crouches among the trees     From the stern-faced men who follow these.     A huddle of rocks that the ooze has mossed,     And the trail of the hunted again is lost.     An upturned pebble; a bit of ground     A heel has trampled - the trail is found.     And the woods re-echo the bloodhounds' bay     As again they take to the mountain way.     A rock; a ribbon of road; a ledge,     With a pine tree clutching its crumbling edge.     A pine, that the lightning long since clave,     Whose huge roots hollow a ragged cave.     A shout; a curse; and a face aghast;     The human quarry is laired at last.     The human quarry with clay-clogged hair     And eyes of terror who waits them there.     That glares and crouches and rising then     Hurls clods and curses at dogs and men.     Until the blow of a gun-butt lays     Him stunned and bleeding upon his face.     A rope; a prayer; and an oak-tree near,     And a score of hands to swing him clear.     A grim, black thing for the setting sun     And the moon and the stars to gaze upon.