JOSLIN'S DONKEY. 243 



for ten minutes or so. At the end of that time 

 I got up and tried to walk straight along the 

 hedge, but instead I ran off several yards to 

 the right and fell down. 



After another rest I got up again, and 

 although my head every now and then went 

 boring in the wrong direction, and I staggered 

 like a drunken man, I managed to get into 

 Church Road, about two hundred yards from 

 Stanstead. Here I met Inspector Scott, Dr. 

 Brooks, Joslin, Hutley, and seven or eight 

 other men, who were coming to fetch my dead 

 body out of Ryecroft ditch. They took me 

 home, and Dr. Menasseh Brooks examined 

 me and plastered my wounds ; he then went 

 upstairs and told my wife not to be alarmed, 

 but I had met with some poachers. " Is he 

 hurt ? " enquired my wife, anxiously. " No," 

 lied the doctor, " He's down below, smoking 

 a pipe with Inspector Scott, and telling him 

 all about it ; he won't be up for half an hour 



or so." 



Hutley and Joslin had told Inspector Scott 

 how desperately they and I fought with the 



