The Confessions of a T'oacher. 61 



-every field-cut and by-path for miles, and are 

 as much aware as their masters that county 

 constables have a nasty habit of loitering about 

 unfrequented lanes at daybreak. 



The difficulty lies not so much in obtaining 

 game as in getting it home safely ; but for all 

 that I was but rarely surprised with game 

 upon me in this way. Disused buildings, 

 stacks, and dry ditches are made to contain 

 the "haul" until it can be sent for an office 

 which I usually got some of the field-women 

 to perform for me. Failing these, country 

 carriers and early morning milk-carts were 

 useful. When I was night poaching, it was 

 important that I should have the earliest inti- 

 mation of the approach of a possible enemy, 

 and to secure this the dogs were always trained 

 to run on a few hundred yards in advance. 

 A well-trained lurcher is almost infallible in 

 detecting a foe, and upon meeting one he runs 

 back to his master under cover of the far side 

 of a fence. When the dog came back to me in 

 this way I lost not a second in accepting the 

 shelter of the nearest hedge or deepest ditch 



