ack-coated man, however, instead of proceeding along the road,
had now approached the group of men standing under the wall, and
was talking with them. They themselves did not seem to be doing
anything, although a large coil of barbed wire and a number of
hurdles lay near them.

'Hullo, Dodge!'

At the Squire's voice the black-coated man withdrew a little
distance to the roadway, where he stood watching. Of the three
others the two old fellows, ex-keepers both of them, stood
sheepishly silent, as the Squire neared them.

'Well, my men, good-morning! What have you done?' said the Squire
peremptorily.

Dodge looked up.

'We've put a bit of wire on the gate, Squoire, an' fastened the
latch of it up--and we've put a length or two along the top of the
wall,' said the old man slowly--'an' then--' He paused.

'Then what?--what about the hurdles? I expected to find them all up
by now!'

Dodge looked at Perley. And Perley, a gaunt, ugly fellow, who had
been a famous hunter and trapper in his day, took off his hat and
mopped his brow, before he said, in a small, cautious voice,
entirely out of keeping with the rest of him:

'The treuth on it is, Squoire, we don't loike the job. We be afeard
of their havin' the law on us.'

'Oh, you're afraid, are you?' said the Squire angrily. '_You_ won't
stand up for your rights, anyway!'

Perley looked at his employer a little askance.

'They're not _our_ rights, if you please, Muster Mannering. We don't
have nothing to say to 'un.'

'They are your rights, you foolish fellow! If this abominable
Government tramples on me to-day, it'll trample on you to-morrow.'

'Mebbe, Squoire, mebbe,' said Perley mildly. 'But Dodge and I don't
feel loike standing up to 'un. We was engaged to mind the roads an'
the leaves, an' a bit rabbitin', an' sich like. But this sort of job
is somethin' out o' the common, Muster Mannering. We don't hold wi'
it. The County they've got a powerful big road-engine, Squoire.
They'll charge them gates to-morrow--there 'll be a terr'ble to do.
My wife, she's frightened to death. She's got a cart from Laycocks,
and she's takin' all our bit things over to her mother's. She won't
stay, she says, to be blowed up, not for no one. Them Governments is
terr'ble powerful, Squoire. If they was to loose a bit o' gas on
us--or some o' they stuffs they put into shells? Noa, Noa,
Squoire'--Perley shook his head resolutely, imitated exactly by
Dodge--'we'll do our dooty in th