He craved a means of striking one blow back at the cause of his cheerless plight, while he was still on the scene of his discomfiture.

For some minutes no method suggested itself, and then he had an idea.
Coming to a sudden resolution, he hastened along the garden, and entered the one attached to the next cottage, which had formerly been the dwelling of a game-keeper.

Tim descended the path to the back of the house, where only an old woman lived at present, and reaching the wall he stopped.

Owing to the slope of the ground the roof-eaves of the linhay were here within touch, and he thrust his arm up under them, feeling about in the space on the top of the wall-plate.
"Ah, I thought my memory didn't deceive me!" he lipped silently.
With some exertion he drew down a cobwebbed object curiously framed in iron, which clanked as he moved it.

It was about three feet in length and half as wide.