56 AN ENGLISH GAMEKEEPER. 



poacher in a way I little expected ; I cannot, 

 from experience, describe the sensation of a 

 "blue funk," but doubtless some of my readers 

 have felt it, and I should think that my captive 

 was in a blue funk, now. 



"Let go, Jack," said he; "you know me 

 well enough." But I still held fast. "Yes, I 

 know you," I said: "still I want others to 

 know you besides me." "Let go, will you," 

 said the man, hoarsely; " Can't you see I am 

 taken bad in my inside?" "All right, you 

 may be bad or not, but, until someone 

 comes up I don't leave go." It may sound 

 heartless of me to talk like this, but keepers 

 have to be up to all sorts of dodges. All this 

 time old Dick and father kept answering my 

 call, but the first to arrive was Matthew Atkins, 

 and when he appeared I released my hold. 

 Then old Dick came up. "Ah, Tom, my 

 boy," says he, looking at the poacher, "you've 

 got a good dose of physic this time." At this 

 point we heard father call out, some hundred 

 and fifty yards down the wood, and on our 

 answering he shouted, " Go on ; he's at the 



