zors."

"I wishes you would, sir," said the keeper, from behind; "if
genl'men'd sometimes take a watch at nights, they'd find out as
keepers hadn't all fair weather work, I'll warrant, if they're to
keep a good head o' game about a place. 'Taint all popping off
guns, and lunching under hayricks, I can tell 'em--no, nor half
on it."

"Where do you think, now, this fellow we are talking of sells his
fish?" said Tom, after a minute's thought.

"Mostly at Reading Market, I hears tell, sir. There's the guard
of the mail, as goes by the cross-roads three days a week, he wur
a rare poaching chap hisself down in the west afore he got his
place along of his bugle-playing. They do say as he's open to any
game, he is, from a buck to a snipe, and drives a trade all down
the road with the country chaps.

"What day is Reading Market?"

"Tuesdays and Saturdays, sir."

"And what time does the mail go by?"

"Six o'clock in the morning, sir, at the cross-roads."

"And they're three miles off, across the fields?"

"Thereabouts, sir. I reckons it about a forty minutes' stretch,
and no time lost."

"There'll be no more big fish caught on the fly to-day," said
Tom, after a minute's silence, as they neared the house.

The wind had fallen dead, and not a spot of cloud in the sky.

"Not afore nightfall, I think, sir;" and the keeper disappeared
towards the offices.

CHAPTER XXXVII

THE NIGHT WATCH

"You may do as you please, but I'm going to see it out."

"No, but I say do come along; that's a good, fellow."

"Not I; why, we've only just come out. Didn't you hear? Wurley
dared me to do a night's watching, and I said I meant to do it."

"Yes; so did I. But we can change our minds. What's the good of
having a mind if you can't change it! [Greek text] ai denterai
poz phrontidez sophoterai--isn't that good Greek and good sense?"

"I don't see it. They'll only laugh and sneer if we go back now."

"They'll laugh at us twice as much if we don't. Fancy they're
just beginning pool now, on that stunning table. Come along,
Brown; don't miss your chance. We shall be sure to divide the
pools, as we've missed the claret. Cool hands and cool heads, you
know. Green on brown, pink your player in hand! That's a good
deal pleasanter than squatting here all night on the damp grass."

"Very likely."

"But you won't? Now, do be reasonable. Will you come if I stop
with you another half-hour?"

"No."

"An hour then? Say till ten o