240 AN ENGLISH GAMEKEEPER. 



badly battered to care much what they did 

 with me now, and I was perfectly resigned to 

 my fate, when suddenly I heard a shout. 



" Stop, Tom, stop, I say ; hold hard, let him 

 be ; leave him alone, I tell you." It was Jones 

 who spoke, and he came tearing across the 

 field with a vengeance, to prevent them from 

 killing me. " I won't have it, Tom," said he 

 authoritatively, " I'll fetch you down if you 

 offer to touch him." I could tell, by the way 

 he spoke, that he had his stick raised and ready 

 for use. Thus he saved my life, or rather he 

 was the instrument in the hands of Providence 

 that effected this ; for when I heard the man 

 coming down into the ditch to kill me, I, in 

 my crippled and defenceless state, cried in 

 silence to the Lord to save me from their 

 violence. I knew it was no use appealing to 

 them, so I called upon the Lord, who holds 

 the lives of all men in His hands, and I did 

 not call in vain, for it was just then that Jones 

 called out to them to stop. 



"Come," Jones went on, "we must take 

 these dogs away." **Cut my nail off first, be- 



