Feminine Poachers. 2 1 1 



estates. Gentlemen on intimate terms naturally 

 imagine that their keepers mutually assist each other 

 in the detection of poaching — meeting by appoint- 

 ment, for instance, at night, as the police <k>, to confer 

 upon their beats. When two or three are thus in 

 league it is not difficult for them to dispose of booty ; 

 they quickly get into communication with professional 

 receivers ; and instances have been known in which 

 petticoats have formed a cover for a steady if small 

 illegal transport of dead game over the frontier. 



For his own profit a keeper of this kind may 

 indeed be trusted to prevent poaching on the part of 

 other persons, whose gains would be his loss, since 

 there would remain less for him to smuggle. Very 

 probably it may come to be acknowledged on all 

 sides that he is watchful and always about : an ad- 

 mission that naturally tends to raise him in the esteem 

 of his employer. 



Those who could tell tales — his subordinate assist- 

 ants — are all more or less implicated, as in return for 

 their silence they are permitted to get pickings : a 

 dozen rabbits now and then, good pay for little work, 

 and plenty of beer. If one of them lets out strange 

 facts in his cups, it signifies nothing: no one takes 

 any heed of a labourer's beerhouse talk. The steward 

 or bailiff has strong suspicions, perhaps, but his 



