FEMININE POACHERS. 213 



the explanation which, if listened to, might set matters 

 right The accused, attempting to explain, finds a strong 

 prejudice against him, and turns away in dudgeon. Such 

 underhand tricks sometimes cause mischief in a whole 

 district. An unscrupulous keeper may set people of all 

 ranks at discord with each other. 



In these malpractices, and in the disposal of game 

 which is bulky, he is occasionally assisted by other keepers 

 of congenial character engaged upon adjacent estates. 

 Gentlemen on intimate terms naturally imagine that their 

 keepers mutually assist each other in the detection of 

 poaching — meeting by appointment, for instance, at night, 

 as the police do, to confer upon their beats. When two 

 or three are thus in league it is not difficult for them 

 to dispose of booty ; they quickly get into communica- 

 tion with professional receivers ; and instances have been 

 known in which petticoats have formed a cover for a 

 steady if small illegal transport of dead game over the 

 frontier. 



For his own profit a keeper of this kind may indeed 

 be trusted to prevent poaching on the part of other per- 

 sons, whose gains would be his loss, since there would 

 remain less for him to smuggle. Very probably it may 

 come to be acknowledged on all sides that he is watchful 

 and always about : an admission that naturally tends to 

 raise him in the esteem of his employer. 



Those who could tell tales — his subordinate assistants 



