94 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PHEASANT 



observes, which rendered it so difficult for the authori- 

 ties to catch him. 



However, Fortune is notoriously fickle, and she did 

 not always smile upon Sans Pouce. For example, it 

 happened on a certain winter's day that the keepers 

 noticed the track of a man's shoes in the half-frozen 

 snow of the forest. They followed these imprints until 

 they came to a thick holly tree. Here their keen 

 eyes, trained in woodcraft, saw that the dead leaves 

 which covered the ground had been moved and 

 heaped together, with the view of concealing some 

 object which had been slipped beneath the bush ; as 

 soon as they closely scrutinised the pile of leaves, they 

 recognised the butt-end of a gun. The keepers, 

 being anxious to catch the knave to whom the gun 

 belonged, proceeded to hide among the holly bushes 

 which stood around. There they remained immovable 

 for many hours, when they sought the assistance of 

 their mates. A watch was subsequently maintained for 

 two whole days. At last, on the third night, Sans Pouce 

 himself arrived upon the scene, intending, of course, 

 to recover his gun. But hardly had he knelt down to 

 pull the weapon out of the brushwood, when the three 

 keepers threw themselves upon him, and he was 

 obliged to surrender. 



' Comet ' is or was the slang phrase by which a 



