Lowrie s Gap 169 



let it drop. ' Na, na,' he said ; ' I'm a peaceable man, 

 and atween the mairches. It'll be waur for him that 

 first strikes.' Then I came on laughing, and ' Dod, 

 it's ee again, is't ? ' he said, ' it's weel I didna land ye 

 a clout on the cruntle.' Whereupon I squatted on a 

 blown branch and made much of him. He brought 

 out a bottle and a crust of bread, not without an hospit- 

 able offer to share, and fell to on the rabbit ; and,, 

 being honourably entreated, and fully satisfied that I 

 was on no ' splore ' that would peril his operations, he 

 grew confidential. He showed me his ferret (his sole 

 companion), and the home-made nets he used with it. 

 He Explained how he fed the pheasants by a cover 

 and then caught them in such horse-hair nooses as 

 these. He brought out the hook he kept in readiness 

 for a providential salmon. In a word, he plucked the 

 heart out of his mystery. He vowed, too, that he had 

 always kept and meant to keep away from the 

 neighbourhood of Lowrie's Gap ; but he is thought to 

 have gone there the very next day. At all events, the 

 birds vanished, and he was seen thereby. So I yield 

 the honour of converting him the wild man of the 

 woods that he is to some more vigorous and per- 

 suasive missionary. 



