Sage laughed.
‘Of other men’s games, in books, perhaps,’ he said.
‘Well,’ said Orsden, ‘you’re right so far, that one of the closest and cunningest poachers I ever heard of was a Leighway hedge-carpenter called Cleaver, and he was as quiet, sober, civil-spoken a chap as one could meet; pious, too, and reasonable, though a bit of a village politician, with views of his own on labour. Yet it came out that for years he’d been making quite a handsome income out of Audley and its neighbours—a sort of D-Deacon Brodie, you know. Not one of their preserves, though; you’re at fault there, Baron. Your local man knows better than to put his head into the noose. His dealings are with the casual outsiders, so far as pheasants are concerned. When he takes a gun, it’s mostly to the birds; and of course he shoots them sitting.’
‘Brute!’ said Audrey.
‘Well, I don’t know,’ said the young Baronet. ‘He’s a tradesman, isn’t he, not a sportsman, and tradesmen don’t give law.’
‘How did he escape so long?’ asked the girl.
‘Why, you see,’ answered Orsden, ‘you can’t arrest a man on suspicion of game-stealing with nothing about him to prove it. He must be caught in the act; and if one-third of his business lies in poaching, quite two-thirds lie in the art of avoiding suspicion. Fellows like Cleaver are cleverer hypocrites than they are trappers—J-Joseph Surfaces in corduroys.’
‘Do you find,’ said Le Sage, ‘men of his kind much prone to violence?’
‘Not usually,’ replied Orsden, ‘but they may be on occasion, if suddenly discovered at work with a gun in their hands. It’s exposure or murder then, you see; ruin or safety, with no known reason for anyone suspecting them. I expect many poor innocent d-devils were hanged in the old days for the sins of such vermin.’
‘Yes,’ said Le Sage, ‘a shot-gun can be a great riddler.’
One or two of us cackled dutifully over the jeu de mot. Could we have guessed what tragic application it would receive before the day was out, we might have appreciated it better, perhaps.
I shall not soon forget that afternoon. It began with Audrey and the Baron driving off together for a jaunt in the little cart. They were very merry, and our young Baronet would have liked, I think, to join them. I had noticed Le Sage looking excessively sly during lunch over what he thought, no doubt, was an exclusive discovery of his regarding these two. But he was wrong. They were good friends, and that was all; and, as to the young lady’s heart, I had just as much reason as Orsden—which was none whatever—for claiming a particular share in its interest. Any thought of preference would have been rank presumption in either of us, and the wish, I am sure, was founded upon no such supposition. It was merely that with Hugh in his present mood, the prospect of spending further hours in his company was not an exhilarating one.
He was flushed, and lethargic, and very difficult to move to further efforts when the meal was over; but we got him out at last and went to work. It did not last long with him. It must have been somewhere short of three o’clock that he shouldered his gun and came plodding to me across the stubble.
‘Look here, Viv,’ he said, ‘I’m going home. Make my apologies to Orsden, and keep it up with him; but I’m no good, and I’ve had enough of it.’
He turned instantly with the word, giving a short laugh over the meaning expressed obviously enough, I dare say, in my eyes, and began to stride away.
‘No,’ he called, ‘I’m not going to shoot myself, and I’m not going to let you make an ass of me. So long!’
I had to let him go. Any further obstruction from me, and I knew that his temper would have gone to pieces. I gave his message to Orsden, and we two continued the shoot without him. But it was a joyless business, and we were not very long in making an end of it. We parted in the road—Orsden for the Bit and Halter and the turning to Leighway, and I for the gates of Wildshott. It was near five o’clock, and a grey still evening. As I passed the stables, a white-faced groom came hurrying to stop me with a piece of staggering news. One of the maids, he said, had been found murdered, shot dead, that afternoon in the Bishop’s Walk.
LE SAGE, in the course of a pleasant little drive with Audrey, asked innumerable questions and answered none. This idiosyncrasy of his greatly amused the young lady, who was by disposition frankly outspoken, and whose habit it never was to consider in conversation whether she committed herself or anyone else. Truth with her was at least a state of nature—though it might sometimes have worn with greater credit to itself a little more trimming—and states of nature are relatively pardonable in the young. A child who sees no indecorum in nakedness can hardly be expected to clothe Truth.
‘This Sir Francis,’ asked the Baron, ‘he is an old friend of yours?’
‘O, yes!’ said Audrey; ‘quite an old friend.’
‘And favourite?’
‘Well, he seems one of us, you see. Don’t you like him yourself?’
‘I suppose he and your brother are on intimate terms?’
‘We are all on intimate terms; Hugh and Frank no more than Frank and I.’
‘And no less, perhaps; or perhaps not quite so much?’
‘O, yes they are! What makes you think so? ’
‘Not quite so intimate, I will put it, as your brother and Mr Bickerdike?’
‘I’m sure I don’t know. Hugh is great friends with them both.’
‘Tell me, now—which would you rather he were most intimate with?’
‘How can it matter to me?’
‘You have a preference, I expect.’
‘I certainly have; but that doesn’t affect the question. It was Hugh you were speaking of, not me.’
‘Shall I give your preference? It is for Mr Bickerdike.’
‘Well guessed, Baron. Am I to take it as a compliment to my good taste?’
‘He is a superior man.’
‘Isn’t he? And always wishes one to know it, too.’
‘Aha! Then the Baronet is the man?’
‘How absurd you are! Do you value your friends by preference? Nobody is the man, as you call it. Because I don’t much like Mr Bickerdike, it doesn’t follow that I particularly like anybody else.’
‘Why don’t you like him?’
‘I don’t know. Perhaps because he likes himself too much.’
‘Conceited, is he?’
‘Not quite that: a first-rate prig I should call him—always wanting to appear cleverer than he really is.’
‘Isn’t he clever?’
‘O, yes! Clever after a sort; but frightfully obtuse, too. I wouldn’t trust him with a secret. He’s so cocksure of himself that he’d always be liable to give it away with his blessing. But I oughtn’t to speak like that of him. He’s a great friend of Hugh’s, and he does really like to help people, I think, only it must be in his own way and not theirs. Do you like him?’
‘I am rather surprised that he and your brother should be on such close terms of friendship.’
‘Are you? Why?’
‘Is not Mr Hugo, now, without offence, a rather passionate, self-willed