120 AN ENGLISH GAMEKEEPER. 



We did so, taking care that the other men 

 should see us walking away from them, as if 

 we did not mean lo follow any longer. i;o thev 

 went on towards the Den, whilst we pretended 

 to go back to Chesham. 



This ruse succeeded splendidly. I knew 

 every hedge, tree, stick, ditch, lane and path 

 about the place, and being well aware that the 

 men would have to go down a narro^v, zigzag 

 lane used as a farm track for carting, I led my 

 companions down a short cut, by a large quick- 

 set hedge, to an elbow in the lane. Peeping 

 through the hedge we saw our three gentlemen 

 coming leisurely down the lane, evidently 

 thinking that the pursuit was over. When 

 they were within twenty or thiriy yards of us, 

 we all sprang over the hedge. I was told off 

 to spot a man dressed in a pilot coat, and 

 wearing his black curlv hair verv long, like a 

 girl's. I got up to them in a twinkling, and 

 not troubling about the other two men, who 

 immediately jumped over the hedge. I made 

 for the pilot-coated man. He ran up the lane 

 and I laughed to mvself as I graduallv over- 



