girl.

Helen glanced at him with some surprise when he went back to the fence.
She had not seen him look like that.

"I've let them go, but two or three are dead," he remarked. "I suppose
they've been lying there all night."

"I'm afraid so. They come out to feed at dusk. It's horribly cruel."

"It's devilish! Why don't you stop it? Is the field yours?"

"It goes with the house, and when we let the grazing I stipulated that
no snares should be laid, but there was some mistake and the tenant
claimed the rabbits. We said he could shoot them, and I understand he's
disputing with the agent. But where are you going?"

"I'm going back to finish the job; these particular snares won't be used
again. If you like, I'll come over every evening and pull the blamed
things up."

"I don't think that will be necessary," Helen answered with a strained
laugh.

She felt disturbed and excited when Festing turned away. Her life had
been smooth and she did not think she had seen a man seized by savage
anger; certainly not a man she knew. Festing was angry, and no doubt
justly, but at the Scar the primitive vein in human nature was decently
hidden. Now she did not know if she were jarred or not. Then she heard
voices, and going nearer the fence, tried to see through the briars.

Festing, with a pocket-knife and some brass wire in his hand, confronted
a big slouching man who carried a heavy stick and a net bag. Bits of fur
stuck to the fellow's clothes and there was blood on his dirty hands.
A half-grown lad with another stick waited, rather uneasily, in the
background.

"What might you be doing?" the man inquired.

"I'm cutting up your snares," Festing replied. "What have you got to say
about it?"

The other gave him a slow, sullen look. "Only that you'd better leave
the snares alone. How many rabbits?"

"Four," said Festing, pulling up another snare and cutting the noose.

"Then that will be five shillings. I'll say nothing about the snares;
wire's cheap."

Festing laughed. "It's a dead bluff. Light out of this field before I
put you off."

The man hesitated, his eyes fixed on Festing's hardset face. Perhaps a
way out might have been found, but the lad precipitated matters. Running
to the mouth of the burrow, he picked up a half-dead rabbit that was
trying to crawl away, and leered at Festing as he raised his stick. The
blow was not struck, for Festing leaped across the grass and next moment
the boy fell beside the burro