got forty at one place, and how the wind took them
as they came over?"

"Near _Arleigh_?" repeated Charles, with sudden interest.

"Uncle Charles," interposed Molly, reproachfully, "don't let all the
ducks stick onto the magnet like that. I told you not before. Make it go
on in front."

But Charles's attention had wandered from the ducks.

"Yes," continued Ralph, "near Arleigh. There was a gang of poachers
there last year, and the keepers dared not attack them they were so
strong, though they were shooting right and left. But we'll be even with
them this year. My men are going, and I shall go with them. You had
better come too, and join the fun. The more the better."

"Why should I go?" said Charles, listlessly. "Am I my brother's keeper,
or even his underkeeper? Molly, don't splash your uncle's wardrobe.
Besides, I expect it is a false alarm or a blind."

"False alarm!" retorted Ralph. "I tell you Thursby's head keeper,
Shaw--you know Shaw--saw a man himself only last night in the Arleigh
coverts; came upon him suddenly, reconnoitring, of course; for to-night,
and would have collared him too if the moon had not gone in, and when it
came out again he was gone."

"Of course, and he will warn off the rest to-night."

"Not a bit of it. He never saw Shaw. Shaw takes his oath he didn't see
him. I'll lay any odds they will beat those coverts to-night, and, by
George! we'll nail some of them, if we have an ounce of luck."

Ralph's sporting instinct, to which even the fleeting vision of a chance
weasel never appealed in vain, was now thoroughly aroused, and even
Charles shared somewhat in his excitement.

How could he warn Raymond to lie close? The more he thought of it the
more impossible it seemed. It was already late in the afternoon. He
could not, for Raymond's sake, risk being seen hanging about in the
woods near Arleigh for no apparent reason, and Raymond was not expecting
to see him in any case for two days to come, and would probably be
impossible to find. He could do nothing but wait till the evening came,
when he might have some opportunity, if the night were only dark enough,
of helping or warning him.

The night was dark enough when it came; but it was unreliable. A tearing
autumn wind drove armies of clouds across the moon, only to sweep them
away again at a moment's notice. The wind itself rose and fell, dropped
and struggled up again like a furious wounded animal.

"It will drop at midnight," said R