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 



