The record-union., 1894-03-10

claimed Darlington gaily, as the young
/ noDlenen set out. each roughly dressed
as for snipe-shooting, and each provided
with two double barreled, breech-load-
ing. center-fire fowling pieces of number
| twelve bore, and all, excepting Rande-
vile, with his skillful man for reloading
and another for carrying cartridges; for
/ the young hosts loader was none
other than the poachers' Lucy dressed as
/ they had seen her the day before, and her
battered straw hat setting rallishly upon
| her black, bobbing curlS; while hungry
looking village lad trailed after, his body
| hung with cartridges like pleasure boats
cabins with rows of life -preservers.
"Wait until the bags are counted" J"
! pleasantly retorted Vaudeville, as the
! sportsmen took their respective stations.
Old Noggins, the gamekeeper, brought
! his assistants and "beaters" into line be-
hind, with motley crew from the lodges
and the village with carts and dODkeyS,
still behind, for gathering up the birds,
and separate bagmen for Darlington and
Randeville, under the conditions OF their
wager of the previous night.
| Then they all moved forward, perhaps
ten yards apart. Noggins, who knew
every bush, copse, hedge or tree. direct
ing all the movements OF the beaters.
! In moment more TIE preserve was a
perfect bedlam of shouts and explosions,
J
"beat" the bushes, calling out as the
startled birds flashed from copse to copse,
"Cock to the lett 7" "Cock abover' ''To
the right, cock ~ "Hi-yi-I-iw Cock,
cock, cock'' while the death-dealing
guns answered so rapidly that they often
! burned the leaders, hands.
4 All day long this yelling, this whirring,
this excitement and this slaughter, save
! for an hour at 2 for lunch of stew and
beer for the sportsmen and slathers of
! beer and cheese for the helpers, beaters
and village shaughrans, Lucy never ut
tering a word the livelong day more than
''Aisy. now, Drogow "Drogo, aim low,
thin ~ Don't let him fiuster ye, Drogow
''Beat him entirely, there's a master,
dearn' to the steady accompaniment of
the click of shell and cartridge, the swish
of oiled flannel upon the heated gun bar
rels, the "hip-tlap'' Of guns sent whirling
from hand to hand, or the humping of
her pretty foot against certain lifeless
birds, tumbled with single energetic
kick into the cover of tangled brush by
! her side.
And when the blast from old Noggins'
horn brought the shoot to a finish Rande
vile just looked once into the happy eyes
of his loader to know thaat he had won.
"a hundred and sixty odd thin" she
said jOyOusly. "Twinty and more be-
yond him ~
Good! Get to bed early, Lucy. You've
had hard day OF it, girl. Besides" and
| here he looked at her with much stern
ness, you may be disturbed tonight.
| Old Dennis with donkey and cart might
be alongside the wall; toward midnight,
you know?"
"Oh, master deari-' but her voice
only broke into roguish peal of laugh
ter, whereupon she ran away.
That night in THE DEM the lively
banter ran the other way. The rector
| pleaded some pressing duty, and was not
with them. From wondrous tales of
other wondrous shoots, the rattle-brained
gossip came along the line of the noble
! youngsters adventures IN travel, at the
university, in love, and finally to poach-
ing and poachers and the remedy, in
these wiseacres' Judgment for the evil;
Darlington holding with untiinching
sternnesS to the rigid enforcement of the
law, and Randeville contending that no
generous lord should fail to know, and
still less fail to overlook, these insignifi-
cant peculations.
"Ah," said Darlington irritably, YOU'D
sing another song if you suffered at Ball
nagee, as we do in England"
ION the contrary" returned Rande-
vile, "Pll lay you a hundred TO fifty
this very moment my loader, Lucy, is
tossing brace after brace of pheasants
over the demesne wall"
The odds were too temptingly in Car
lington's favor. He took the wager in
stantly. Their friends, tired from the
days sport, left them, and the two stole
stealthily out of the castle and, following
the demesne wall closely were not long
in passing the line of the thickest forest
and coming abreast of where the heavier
shooting of the day had taken place.
They soon heard voices, saw the occa-
sional flash of lantern and, creeping
softly nearer and nearer, at last stood
we'll out of sight behind the trunk of
huge sycamore.
by Joven' whispered Darlington with
a groan. You'll break me against your
brace games, Randeviller'
And well he might Shutting feet, the
occasional stir OF cart wheels and a low
but hearty larruplng OF an unmanageable
donkey. were heard from the moorland
bog Just outside the wall; while shaggy
Irish head appeared and reappeared
where the murderous broken glass which
crowned the coping had been carefully
covered with hard clay; and the kindly,
compassionate and occasionally triumph
ant voice of the poachers' Lucy was the
CHEEKY accompaniment to the first au-
tumnal distribution of game from the
preserves OF Ballnagee.
Here's the last pair, Dennis. There's
nigh forty brace, Dennis. Thered not
been half the number this night, if the
dear master hadn't already beaten the
shamer roundly by noon All, Dennis,
my head was fairly blaZin', keepin' the
count, this day! Parcel them out fair
now, Dennis. There's a brace for old
limpy Curran, thin; one for wildly Ma
lone, poor creature; TWO for Mickey Dunn's
fourteen hungry mouths; one for Owen,
the weaver; one for mother Ryan, poor
soul! by the mill; and four brace-mind,
now, Dennis, the fat ones for Father
Kilroy, an my compliments, instead o.
confession land all the rest for your
swate, old, beggarly, spalpeen self, for
the rent God bless you! BE lively now
and may the top o. your head never
folly your hairW
Get back to the castle; quick, CARING
ton Pm going to take your advice and
put stop to ali this poaching, right
here Easy and quiet, now ~
This, eXcitedly from Randeville, as
Darlington stole away; for he had seen
what the poachers' Lucy, with all her
cunning, and his own companion had
not seen-the figure of a powerfully built
man, crouchlng IN the shadow against
the wall and contemplating the little
poaching scene, his eyes following every
movement of the chief actor in it, with a
look of pathetic hunger, of compassionate
pity and Of such complete and utter hope
lessness as he had never seen before, and
which he could not mistake.
Lucy had scarcely tossed the lantern to
old Dennis, who was mumbling seventy
and seven blessings upon her head, when
young Lord Vaudeville stole lightly to
her side, took her arm firmly within his
own as the figure against the wall sprang
toward him with heavy, uplifted stick.
Its all right. Brisbin. It's all rightr'
said Randeville, reassuringly. Here,
ful- of nv II "a I,o
best friends at Ballnagee-the best friends
in all the world. L hope," he added. with
with genuine tenderness. Everything is
ship shape with Dennis, now, and we