a strong propensity which was
common to both, and which formed a never-failing topic of interesting
conversation. This propensity was a love of sport, especially if
indulged secretly, unlawfully, and at the expense of somebody else; in a
word, they were arrant poachers, the man in fact, the boy at heart. Not
but what Saurin had snared a hare too in his time.

For some time Marriner had been chary of confessing his depredations,
for he was careful about committing himself, especially to a gentleman,
who might naturally be supposed to side with the game-preservers. But
when the ice was broken he talked freely enough, and from that time the
intimacy commenced. Yet at times he had qualms, and feared that he had
been rash to depart from his custom of close secrecy; and it often
occurred to him that it would be well to draw Saurin into some act of
complicity, and so seal his lips effectually and for ever. He felt and
expressed great admiration for the air-gun, and suggested that they
should try it some moonlight night upon the roosting pheasants. This
was treated as a joke at first; a romantic idea which could not, of
course, be carried into practice; but after it had been referred to, and
discussed again and again, it did not look so utterly impossible. The
principal difficulty was the getting out at night, but after many
careful inspections of his tutor's premises Saurin saw how this might be
managed. There was a small back-yard into which the boys had access at
any time; this was surrounded by a high wall with a _chevaux de frise_
at the top, which might be considered insurmountable unless one were
Jack Sheppard or the Count of Monte Christo. But there was a door at
the bottom, seldom used, hardly ever, indeed, except when coals came in.
Outside there was a cart track, and then open field. It was the
simplest thing, a mere question of obtaining a key to this door, and he
could walk out whenever he liked. Yes, but how to get the key, which
was taken by the servant to Mrs Cookson when not in use? To watch when
coals were next brought in for an opportunity of purloining it would be
worse than useless, for a new lock would be put to the door, and
suspicion aroused. An idea occurred to him; he had read of impressions
of keys being taken in wax, and duplicates being made from them. He
asked Marriner if it were possible to get this done, and the reply was
yes, that he knew a friendly blacksmith who would make a key