ry well that, if I
showed fight, 'twould only be a long sight worse for me in the end, I
threw up the sponge, gived 'em my air-gun--a wonderful weapon I'd got from
a gipsy--and let 'em take me. I was red-handed by ill-fortune, which,
indeed, they had meant me to be. In fact, they waited just where they
knowed I was going to be busy, having fust throwed me off the scent very
clever by letting one of their number tell a pack o' lies to a woman
friend of mine in a public-house the night afore. She told me what a
keeper had told her, and I believed it, and this was the result.

There weren't no lock-up within five miles, and so the men took me to
Woodcotes till morning; and very pleased they was, and very proud of
themselves, for I'd been a thorn in their hands for a good bit. And I said
nought, understanding such matters, and knowing that every word you speak
at such a time will be used against you.

And then we got to Woodcotes, and I had to speak, for though 'twas three
in the morning or a bit later, young Squire, knowing about the thing,
hadn't gone to bed. He commanded 'em to bring me afore him, and I came in,
handcuffed, to his libery, and there he sat with a good fire and a book.
And a very beautiful satin smoking-jacket he wore, and the room smelled of
rich cigars. I blinked, coming in out of the dark, and he told the keepers
to go till he'd had a talk along with me. And then he dressed me down
properly, but not till his men was t'other side of the door.

He knowed all about my family and its success in the world, and its fame
in all to do with sport, and he said that 'twas a crying sin and shame
that such as me should break away and be a black sheep and get into
trouble like this.

"'Tis a common theft, and nothing more nor less," he said. "You've been
warned more than once, and you knew right well that, if you persisted,
this would be the end of it."

Well, I made ready for a dig back, of course, and was going to surprise
the man; but somehow he spoke so kind and generous and 'peared to be so
properly sorry for me, that I struck another note. I thought I saw a
chance of getting on his blind side and being let off, so I kept away from
such a ticklish subject as the canister. Instead, I spoke very earnest of
my hopes for the future, and promised faithful as I'd try to see the
matter of pheasants and such like from his point of view. And I told him
that I was tokened to a good girl--same as he was--and that 'twou