For the moment he thought there had been an accident; but shortly afterwards he picked up a hare's pad severed from the leg, and next a hare's head, and presently came on a quantity of similar fragments, all fresh.

He collected them, and found they had belonged to six hares which had been cut to pieces by a passing train.

The animals were so mutilated as not to be of the least use.
When I told Hilary of this, he at once pronounced it impossible, and nothing but one of Aaron's lies.

On reflection, however, I am not so sure that it is impossible, nor can I see any reason why the old poacher should invent a falsehood of the kind.

It was just a time of the year when hares are beginning to go 'mad,' and, as they were not feeding but playing together, they might have strayed up the line just as they do along roads.