32 THE KEEPER'S BOOK 



expression of the natural poaching tendency which exists 

 in human nature. He may be a farm hand, a village 

 loon, or even a medical student home for the vacation, 

 but whatever he may be, he is in the majority of cases 

 an amateur and not so dangerous as his professional 

 brother, who is a cast-off from honest trades a grain 

 in the sediment of society. Drink has him, as a rule, 

 in its grip. He has a shifty and congested eye and a 

 tremulous tongue. He is the friend of no man and an 

 enemy to most, and is in the majority of cases an arrant 

 coward. Remarkably ignorant on most questions, he 

 is terribly acute on all matters affecting the poaching 

 of game,and although a coward, he is prepared at a pinch 

 to get rid of another life to keep the security of his own. 

 There used to be a popular impression that the best 

 man to secure as a keeper was one who had been a 

 poacher. If we limit the word " poacher " to the occa- 

 sional, and not the habitual, criminal, there may have 

 been some truth in the belief, but, for our purposes, there 

 is much more wisdom in the reverse statement that the 

 best poacher is the man who has been a keeper. A 

 gamekeeper discharged for drunkenness or dishonesty 

 is a dangerous man to deal with, especially if he con- 

 tinues to hang about the district in which he formerly 

 had respectable employment. He is thoroughly con- 

 versant with every preserve in the county, and knows 

 to a nicety the habits and habitats of the game in 

 the district. The inference is obvious. He is the 

 very man to lead a gang of poachers. It is therefore 



