156 THE GAMEKEEPER AT HOME. 



stains the pocket — a suspicious sign even when empty ; 

 strangulation leaves no traces. 



Without a knowledge of the policeman's beat and the 

 keeper's post the poacher can do nothing on a large scale. 

 He has, however, no great trouble in ascertaining these 

 things ; the labourers who do not themselves poach 

 sympathise warmly and whisper information. There is 

 reason to think that men sometimes get drunk, or suffi- 

 ciently so to simulate intoxication very successfully, with 

 the express purpose of being out all night with a good 

 excuse, and so discovering the policeman's ambuscade. 

 Finding a man, whom he knows to be usually sober, over- 

 taken with drink in a lonely road, where he injures none 

 but himself, the policeman goodnaturedly leads him home 

 with a caution only. 



The receivers of game are many and various. The 

 low beer-shop keepers are known to purchase large quan- 

 tities. Sometimes a local pork-butcher in a small way 

 buys and transmits it, having facilities for sending hamp- 

 ers, etc., unsuspected. Sometimes the carriers are the 

 channel of communication ; and there is no doubt the 

 lower class of game dealers in the provincial towns get a 

 good deal in this way. The London dealer, who receives 

 large consignments at once, has of course no means of 

 distinguishing poached from other game. The men who 

 purchase the rabbits ferreted by the keepers during the 

 winter in the woods and preserves, and who often buy 



