They themselves did not seem to be doing anything, although a large coil of barbed wire and a number of hurdles lay near them.
'Hullo, Dodge!' At the Squire's voice the black-coated man withdrew a little distance to the roadway, where he stood watching.

Of the three others the two old fellows, ex-keepers both of them, stood sheepishly silent, as the Squire neared them.
'Well, my men, good-morning! What have you done ?' said the Squire peremptorily.
Dodge looked up.
'We've put a bit of wire on the gate, Squoire, an' fastened the latch of it up--and we've put a length or two along the top of the wall,' said the old man slowly--'an' then--' He paused.
'Then what ?--what about the hurdles?
I expected to find them all up by now!' Dodge looked at Perley.

And Perley, a gaunt, ugly fellow, who had been a famous hunter and trapper in his day, took off his hat and mopped his brow, before he said, in a small, cautious voice, entirely out of keeping with the rest of him: 'The treuth on it is, Squoire, we don't loike the job.

We be afeard of their havin' the law on us.' 'Oh, you're afraid, are you ?' said the Squire angrily.

'_You_ won't stand up for your rights, anyway!' Perley looked at his employer a little askance.
'They're not _our_ rights, if you please, Muster Mannering.