HUMPHRIES REAPPEARS. 43! 



it away. Had the hounds come across a fox 

 in a trap it would have been useless for me to 

 deny that I knew anything about it being 

 there, I should have got the credit of being a 

 fox-destroyer, and the Hunt would have 

 thought me one, even if I cleared myself with 

 my master. 



I knew very well that Humphries had done 

 it, and 1 accused him of it ; of course he 

 denied it on oath. As I told him, however, if 

 he didn't put it there who did ? I know fox 

 runs, and there was no run in that place 

 through Durrell's Wood, therefore it must 

 have been a malicious act on the part of some 

 one, and designed to get me into a scrape. 

 Who was the most likely person to play me 

 a scurvy trick ? Anyhow the dodge failed, it 

 didn't take, but he tried many other such 

 dodges afterwards, and they all failed. 



One Sunday he caught three tradesmen, so 

 he said, trespassing after rabbits in a gorse 

 bank. He swore before the magistrates that 

 all three men were racing a rabbit up and 

 down the ditch, stopping at every hole, putting 



