But that he should be able to
apply his gifts with such infinite cunning, to a suddenly conceived career
of crime, I must admit amazes me."
Quest had lit a fresh cigar and was smoking vigorously.
"What astonishes me more than anything," he pronounced, as he stood
looking over the desolate expanse of country, "is that when one comes face
to face with the fellow he presents all the appearance of a nerveless and
broken-down coward. Then all of a sudden there spring up these evidences
of the most amazing, the most diabolical resource.... Who's this, Lord
Ashleigh?"
The latter turned his head. An elderly man in a brown velveteen suit, with
gaiters and thick boots, raised his hat respectfully.
"This is my head-keeper, Middleton," his master explained. "He was with us
on the chase."
The Professor shook hands heartily with the newcomer.
"Not a day older, Middleton!" he exclaimed. "So you are the man who has
given us all this trouble, eh? This gentleman and I have come over from
New York on purpose to lay hands on Craig."
"I am very sorry, sir," the man replied. "I wouldn't have fired my gun if
I had known what the consequences were going to be, but them poaching
devils that come round here rabbiting fairly send me furious and that's a
fact. It ain't that one grudges them a few rabbits, but my tame pheasants
all run out here from the home wood, and I've seen feathers at the side of
the road there that no fox nor stoat had nothing to do with. All the same,
sir, I'm very sorry," he added, "to have been the cause of any
inconvenience.
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