Met either in silence or with sarcasms veiled under a show of good-humor, the new keeper was a sentinel watched by other sentinels.

He could do nothing against such numbers.

The delinquents took delight in plotting depredations which it was impossible for him to prove, and the old soldier grew furious at his helplessness.

Groison found the excitement of a war of factions in his duties, and all the pleasures of the chase,--a chase after petty delinquents.

Trained in real war to a loyalty which consists in part of playing a fair game, this enemy of traitors came at last to hate these people, so treacherous in their conspiracies, and so clever in their thefts that they mortified his self-esteem.