274 A MEDLEY OF SPORT 



Jack had made an excellent meal of! the best the 

 bailiff's wife had to offer him, and was enjoying a pipe of 

 tobacco over a blazing fire of driftwood in the stone-floor 

 kitchen, when Togood came in to say that the mare was 

 safely collared for the night, adding ; " Do 'ee be after 

 they owd geeze with that gert shootin'-iron [single 8-bore] 

 o' yourn before it be light, and I'll warrant the mare'll 

 take 'ee right up to 'em, for they alius feeds where the 

 plant be sweetest; and so do she, the cunning owd 

 varmint." 



Jack promised to be up before dawn, and, having 

 poured out the marshman a stiff glass of grog, he bade him 

 sit down and yarn to him. As a yarnist bailiff Togood, 

 who formerly followed the occupation of wildfowler 

 fisherman, is hard to beat ; in fact, one might safely back 

 him to reel off more fishing, fowling, and smuggling lies 

 in a given time than any traveller alive. For perhaps 

 an hour [to his shame] Jack allowed his companion 

 to fib to his heart's content ; but when he began to 

 explain how he and Bill Somebody bagged 108 brents 

 at one shot with a stanchion gun off Mersea Island 

 — ay, and gathered them, too ; and then there 

 were sundry pricked birds which they didn't trouble 

 to follow up — Conway thought it was about time 

 to send him upstairs to his wife ; and he left the room, 

 muttering, " Ay, 128 brents, and never a bird 

 ex-agg-er-rated." 



The next morning Jack was awakened by a loud 

 banging on his bedroom door, and the musical voice of 



