414 -^N ENGLISH GAMEKEEPER. 



corner of the wood that we thought the poachers 

 would most likely come in by." 



I never told them that I let the gun off 

 myself, but said . — " What's the use of my 

 paying a lot of men like you to watch, when 

 you can't hear an alarm gun go off within fifty 

 yards ?" I knew that the gun had three 

 charges of powder in it, for I had made the 

 alarm ball myself. 



Another time I was watching with three or 

 four of the same men, when we lay two and 

 two, so that if the poachers ran away from me 

 and my man, the other two would stop them, 

 and vice versa. We were in a pit, watching 

 for rabbits, because we expected that, when 

 the pubhc houses closed, some men would 

 come to poach these rabbits. 



When it was past closing time, I and my 

 man made a move to go up into the woods, 

 some three-quarters of a mile off; but on 

 reaching the other two men we found that one 

 was drunk, and so fast asleep that we could 

 not wake him. I took a cord and tied his 

 ankles together, tied his hands together behind 



