The Sport of Our Ancestors 



his master, and the wood. * Feel of him, how stiff he is.' 

 A good many did feel, but Lord Rufford stood still and 

 looked at the poor victim in silence. ' It 's easy knowing 

 how he come by it,' said Bean. 



The men around gazed into each other's faces with a 

 sad, tragic air, as though the occasion were one which at 

 the first blush was too melancholy for many words. There 

 was whispering here and there, and one young farmer's son 

 gave a deep sigh, like a steam-engine beginning to work, and 

 rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand. ' There ain't 

 nothin' too bad — nothin',' said another, leaving his audience 

 to imagine whether he were alluding to the wretchedness 

 of the world in general, or to the punishment which was 

 due to the perpetrator of this nefarious act. The dreadful 

 word ' vulpicide ' was heard from various lips with an oath 

 or two before it. * It makes me sick of my own land, to 

 think it should be done so near,' said Larry Twentyman, 

 who had just come up. Mr. Runciman declared that they 

 must set their wits to work not only to find the criminal but 

 to prove the crime against him, and offered to subscribe a 

 couple of sovereigns on the spot to a common fund to be 

 raised for the purpose. * I don't know what is to be done 

 with a country like this,' said Captain Glomax, who, as an 

 itinerant, was not averse to cast a slur upon the land of his 

 present sojourn, 



' I don't remember anything like it on my property 

 before,' said the lord, standing up for his own estate and the 

 county at large. 

 260 



