rd Woodruff!"

"Not a bad sort altogether, I believe, if you rub him the right way."

"No more am I; give me everything I want, and never thwart me, and I am
the easiest fellow to live with in the world."

That is a sample of the way the matter was discussed and commented upon.
But the most astonished of the whole school, and the only one who could
not trust himself to make any remark at all in public, was Edwards. For
the second time that day he had to watch his opportunity for a private
conference with Saurin, and when he found it he opened on him eagerly.

"What a chap you are! And so you had a regular fight with keepers, and
nearly did for one; and all you said this morning was that the whole
thing was a failure and a sell. And even when we talked about
gamekeepers catching poachers, and the poachers resisting, you kept it
all dark."

"Why, it was a serious thing to talk about, you see," said Saurin.

"Well, I think you might have trusted me at all events," replied Edwards
somewhat reproachfully.

"Trust you! My dear fellow I would trust you with my life," said
Saurin. "But I thought it better to keep Marriner's attack on this
keeper secret for your sake. There was sure to be a row, and in case of
the inquiry coming in this direction, and your being questioned, it
would be so much jollier for you to be able to say that you knew nothing
about it. Whereas, if I had entered into all the details, it would have
bothered you. For, to tell the truth, I feared the man was killed; now
he is not hurt much, I don't care."

"They would not have got anything out of me," said Edwards.

"Perhaps not," replied Saurin. "But those lawyers are awful fellows
when they get you into the witness-box, and make you say pretty nearly
what they like. I had much rather have nothing to tell them myself if I
were to be put in such a position, and I thought you would feel the
same."

"You are right, so I do," said Edwards. "What a fellow you are, Saurin,
you think of everything!"

"It is different, now that they have got hold of that ass, Buller; what
a joke it all is, isn't it?"

"Yes," replied Edwards, in a tone of hesitation, however, as if he did
not quite see the humour of it. "Rather rough upon Buller, though,
don't you think?"

"Not a bit of it; he has got off his flogging."

"But suppose he comes in for something worse?"

"How should he? They cannot prove that he was in the coppice when he
was about three m