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 | 
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 
soncluded 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 
