You could see Muster Raeburn was a tellin' of her to go 'ome.

But she's allus pampered them Hurds." The speaker was Ned Patton, old Patton's son, and Hurd's companion on many a profitable night-walk.

It was barely a week since he had been out with Hurd on another ferreting expedition, some of the proceeds of which were still hidden in Patton's outhouse.

But at the present moment he was one of the keenest of the crowd, watching eagerly for the moment when he should see his old comrade come out, trapped and checkmated, bound safely and surely to the gallows.

The natural love of incident and change which keeps life healthy had been starved in him by his labourer's condition.