88 The Amateur Poacher 



took the other trail, since I must otherwise have over- 

 taken him ; for he would stay long among his chicks : 

 just as an old-fashioned farmer lingers at a gate, 

 gazing on his sheep. Advancing along the lower 

 path, after some fifteen minutes it turned sharply to 

 the right, and I stood under the precipitous cliff-like 

 edge of the hill in a narrow coombe. The earth at 

 the top hung over the verge, and beech-trees stood as 

 it seemed in the act to topple, their exposed roots 

 twisting to and fro before they re-entered the face of 

 the precipice. Large masses of chalky rubble had 

 actually fallen, and others were all but detached. 

 The coombe of course could be overlooked from 

 thence ; but a moment's reflection convinced me there 

 was no risk, for who would dare to go near enough 

 to the edge to look down ? 



The coombe was full of fir-trees ; and by them 

 stood a long narrow shed the roof ruinous, but the 

 plank walls intact. It had originally been erected in 

 a field, since planted for covers. This long shed, a 

 greenish grey from age and mouldering wood, became 

 a place of much interest. Along the back there were 

 three rows of weasels and stoats nailed through the 

 head or neck to the planks. There had been a 

 hundred in each row about three hundred altogether. 

 The lapse of time had entirely dissipated the substance 



