a suspicious look altogether. It would also have been nearly impossible
to carry the hare so many miles by daylight and past villages: even with
the largest pockets it would have been doubtful, for the hare had
stiffened as he lay stretched out. So, carefully replacing him just as
we found him, we left the spot and re-entered the copse.

The shepherd certainly was right; the quantity of nuts was immense: the
best and largest bunches grew at the edge of the thickets, perhaps
because they received more air and light than the bushes within that
were surrounded by boughs. It thus happened that we were in the green
pathway when some one suddenly spoke from behind, and, turning, there
was a man in a velveteen jacket who had just stepped out of the bushes.
The keeper was pleasant enough and readily allowed us to handle his
gun--a very good weapon, though a little thin at the muzzle--for a man
likes to see his gun admired. He said there were finer nuts in a valley
he pointed out, and then carefully instructed us how to get back into
the waggon track without returning by the same path. An old barn was the
landmark; and, with a request from him not to break the bushes, he left
us.

Down in the wooded vale we paused. The whole thing was now clear: the
hare in the wire was a trap laid for the 'gips' whose camp was below.
The keeper had been waiting about doubtless where he could command the
various tracks up the hill, had seen us come that way, and did not wish
us to return in the same direction; because if the 'gip' saw any one at
all he would not approach his snare. Whether the hare had actually been
caught by the wire, or had been put in by the keeper, it was not easy to
tell.

We wandered on in the valley wood, going from bush to bush, little