REDPAD THE FOX 
39 
were taken triumphantly to Paddy Magragh, and 
the foxlike print of the fangs displayed ; and 
secretly even his conviction was shaken, although 
he declared stoutly that it was a dog and not a fox 
that had done the deed. 
With one accord it was decreed that poison 
should be laid down ; and Jack Skehan went to 
Skelagh and bought strychnine, ostensibly to poison 
rats. Paddy Magragh had manfully opposed this 
scheme, for besides the fact that every fox hunted 
from Knockdane meant ten shillings in his pocket, 
he had ' stopped ' the woods for twenty years, 
and took more pride in his foxes than he cared 
to own. 
' If ye '11 do as I tell ye,' he declared, ' ye '11 lay 
the mate on a bit o' paper, an' if it 's a fox, he '11 
never touch it at all, for he 'd be afeard o' the 
paper, but if it 's a dog he '11 ate it.' 
And this was the utmost they would grant him. 
Indeed, if they had believed him, he could not 
even have extorted this concession. 
They ' doctored ' some rabbit paunches with 
strychnine cunningly enough, and laid them seduc- 
tively in the field. It was just before dark when 
they returned home, so they did not see how 
the magpie fluttered down a few minutes later, 
and spying the bait, sidled up to it. He did not 
