52 Studies in Rat Catching, [ch. hi. 



saw the two children sitting on a log of 

 wood outside, with the bull-dog sitting 

 between them. None of the three ever 

 moved out ; all blinked their eyes at me as I 

 passed, as if they were unaccustomed to the 

 sight of a fellow-creature. 



Two or three months passed, during 

 which the man was constantly drinking at 

 the village public-house ; but he always left 

 at sundown — " to look after the kids," he 

 said. Then there was a poaching fray on a 

 nobleman's estate near. Six keepers came 

 on five poachers one moonlight night. 

 There was a hard fight, and at last the 

 keepers to pk two of the men and the other 

 three bolted, but one was recognized as the 

 man from the sand-pit and was " wanted " 

 by the police. 



A few nights after this I was walking 

 down a lane in the dark near my house, 

 when the sand-pit man stepped out of the 



