t the market at Hunston, yesterday."

The policeman lifted the lid off the great pot, which was hanging
over the fire, and stirred up the contents with a stick.

"There's rabbits here--two or three of them, I should say--and a
fowl, perhaps two, but they are cut up."

"I cannot swear to that," Captain Ripon said, examining the
portions of fowl, "though the plumpness of the breasts, and the
size, show that they are not ordinary fowls."

He looked round again at the tents.

"But I can pretty well swear to this," he said, as he stooped and
picked up a feather which lay, half concealed, between the edge of
one of the tents and the grass. "This is a breast feather of a
Spangled Dorking. These are not birds which would be sold for
eating in Hunston market, and it will be for these men to show
where they got it from."

A smothered oath broke from one or two of the men. The elder signed
to them to be quiet.

"That's not proof," he said, insolently. "You can't convict five
men, because the feather of a fowl which you cannot swear to is
found in their camp."

"No," Captain Ripon said, quietly. "I do not want to convict anyone
but the thief; but the proof is sufficient for taking you in
custody, and we shall find out which was the guilty man,
afterwards.

"Now, lads, it will be worse for you, if you make trouble.

"Constables, take them up to Mr. Bailey. He lives half a mile away.
Fortunately, we have means of proving which is the fellow
concerned.

"Now, Sam, you and I will go up with the Netherwood constable to
Mr. Bailey.

"And do you," he said, to the other policeman, "keep a sharp watch
over these women. You say you can find nothing in the tents; but it
is likely the other fowls are hid, not far off, and I will put all
the boys of the village to search, when I come back."

The gypsies, with sullen faces, accompanied Captain Ripon and the
policeman to the magistrate's.

"Is that feather the only proof you have, Ripon?" Mr. Bailey asked,
when he had given his evidence. "I do not think that it will be
enough to convict, if unsupported; besides, you cannot bring it
home to any one of them. But it is sufficient for me to have them
locked up for twenty-four hours and, in the meantime, you may find
the other fowls."

"But I have means of identification," Captain Ripon said. "There is
a footmark in some earth, at the fowl house door. It is made by a
boot which has got hobnails and a horseshoe heel, and a piece o