238 AN ENGLISH GAMEKEEPER. 



five blows out of six, so that they struck the 

 butt and my left arm four or five times to one 

 blow on my head. Hutley told my master 

 afterwards that I received enough blows on 

 my head to kill a horse, but he was mistaken ; 

 he said that the blows sounded like a man 

 threshing on a barn floor, but that was when 

 the gun, and not my head, was struck. 



Hutley stuck true to his three men, Jones, 

 Boys, and the man whom we did not then 

 know, but who afterwards turned out to be 

 one George Newman. Hutley did all that 

 could be expected of him, and, had Joslin 

 done as well, we might have got through all 

 right without my being left in the ditch for 

 dead. I kept on defending myself as well 

 as I could, until a heavy blow on the head 

 knocked me over the hedge and into the ditch, 

 insensible. 



Big Joslin had run away fifty yards, to the 

 gate where the hare was caught, and where I 

 had collared a man with my left hand whilst I 

 shot the dog with my right. He told me after- 

 wards that he stood there, resting his elbow 



