Of poachers there are many types; and the worst are the organised bands
that hail chiefly from colliery and manufacturing districts. These
men are murderous ruffians, and the keeper who interferes with them
carries his life in his hand. Wives look anxiously indeed for their
husbands' return when such a band is about. The gangs chiefly practise
night shooting, and pheasants are their object. But they are as ready
to fire at a keeper as at pheasants. We were shown a single-barrelled
muzzle-loading gun which a keeper had taken from such a poacher, who
had shot a roosting pheasant under his very eyes. After the shot, the
keeper went up to the man, who pointed the gun straight at his head,
threatening to fire if he advanced another yard. But the keeper knew
his man--and his gun. He knew there had been no time for the ruffian
to reload. He knocked up the barrel, and caught his man, who in due
time was sentenced to nine months' imprisonment. Had his gun been
double-barrelled, it would have been another story, and a tragic one.
A favourite weapon, and a deadly, in these poachers' hands is a heavy
stone slung in a stocking.
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