"I'm a bit that way myself." He winked, and again the company laughed.

Bill was known as one of the most daring and desperate poachers in all the countryside, but as yet he had never been caught in the act, and he was one of Miss Tranter's "respectable" customers.

But, truth to tell, Miss Tranter had some very odd ideas of her own.

One was that rabbits were vermin, and that it was of no consequence how or by whom they were killed.

Another was that "wild game" belonged to everybody, poor and rich.