LEAVES FROM A GAME BOOK. 37 



seized and bound and laid by their companions. Thus 

 Hunt and bis two men had collared four poachers, and 

 now that they had time to look them over, Mackintosh 

 was able to identify them all by name and knew where 

 each one hailed from, so therefore they were released 

 and told to foot it. Their boat and net were kept, and 

 the latter destroyed within a few hours, while in due 

 course the quartette of poachers were summoned before 

 the local beak, or " Fiscal," I think he was called. 

 When the day of trial arrived, they at once pleaded 

 guilty, but before sentence was passed, the local limb 

 of the law they had employed for their defence asked 

 permission to say a few words in mitigation of punish- 

 ment. Commencing then by stating that his clients all 

 had starving families to provide for (they always do 

 have under similar circumstances), he proceeded to 

 lay great stress on the fact of Captain Hunt having 

 gone out armed with a murderous weapon, fully prepared 

 to take the lives of these poor men had they offered 

 the least resistance, and so strongly and so hotly was 

 this matter put, that "The Fiscal," whose sympathies 



