MEN AND MANNERS 55 



bird is skinned, if any 2's are found in it, we'll come to 

 terms." 



To this they reluctantly assented, suggesting, anyway, that 

 we had done them out of a good day's work. 



When the bird was skinned, only No. 5's were found ; and 

 we have since found out that the two gunners, rinding they 

 could not get near enough for a shot, fired a " forlorn " shot, 

 rather than not fire at all. 



" Cadger " Brown was a rough fellow, passing harmless, 

 but a waterside Ishmaelite, inasmuch as his hand was against 

 every man. No eel-trunk floating in the stream was ever 

 robbed of its contents but Brown obtained the credit for the 

 exploit ; when tame ducks or geese vanished mysteriously 

 from the marshes, it usually happened that he had been seen 

 loitering in the neighbourhood either before or after the 

 event. Did any marsh farmer hope to gather a profitable 

 crop of mushrooms in the morning, " Cadger " was almost 

 certain to be there before him. 



His punt, as I knew it, was a shapeless bundle of firewood, 

 on whose decks and sides was nailed much tarred canvas that 

 kept the timbers together, but did not keep out all the water. 

 No one knew when or by whom it was built. He used to 

 " bab " and shoot on Breydon, and spent many of his nights on 

 adjoining marshes and rivers. One night in the 70*3, when 

 hares were yet game and abounded on the marshes, he ven- 

 tured up the Bure with another kindred spirit a man who 

 had left Norwich because his poachings were too well known. 

 They shot three hares that night, after the moon got out, and 

 came home. A policeman, suspicious of their movements, 

 came to overhaul the boat, but Brown had just time enough to 

 slip the hares into an eel-trunk and drop it overboard, where 

 it floated innocently enough. This happened to be the only 

 part of the fixtures P.C. Searchlight failed to examine. On 

 another occasion " Cadger " had shot a hare on the marshes, 

 and found the keeper in pursuit of him. He came away in a 

 great hurry on the ebb tide, and as soon as he landed, hastily 

 secured a pot of red lead, and painted the boat all over. When 

 the keeper arrived in town next morning and came to look 

 for a certain " dark coloured " boat, he could not swear that 

 Brown's, which answered in every particular but the colour of 

 it, was the boat he had seen on the previous evening. Such 



