204 TEN YEARS OF GAME-KEEPING 



discovered that the only useful weapon was the 

 flattest of contradiction. When this keeper was 

 forced to acknowledge an outbreak, it was worth 

 walking a long way to hear his rendering of ' Yes, 

 sir/ It suggested the concern of a mother saying 

 'There, there,' to her baby; hinted at deafness; 

 contained the regulation chord of respect ; implied 

 faith in the power of a soft reply for assuaging 

 wrath ; and possessed a subtle note of sarcasm. 



Now I will tell of another variety of diplomacy. 

 The old keeper of whose soliloquizing tendency I 

 have spoken told me how, by diplomacy of a rather 

 drastic type, he gained credit where others failed 

 in fact, where there was really no credit to be 

 gained. An employer of several keepers had 

 acquired rabbit fever in its most virulent form. 

 The order went forth that the last rabbit should be 

 obliterated. It was carried out in so far that the 

 rabbits were got down till only two or three re- 

 mained, and these had acquired, from ceaseless 

 persecution, marvellous cunning in avoiding snares 

 or traps. But few rabbits open many holes, even 

 in a single night ; and the fever-stricken employer 

 concluded from the holes he saw that still many 

 rabbits were surviving. Keeper after keeper was 

 ordered to trap the hole-openers at the scene of 

 their labours. They all failed ; and no wonder, 

 remembering the small number of the survivors, and 

 the vastness of their experience. Even the privilege 



