One fiendish creature drew her scissors, and, using them like a stiletto, drove the sharp point into a sister 'gip's' head.
'Where's the constable ?' was the cry.

Messengers rushed to Lucketts' Place; the barn, the sheds, the hayfield, all were searched in vain--Hilary had quite disappeared.

At the very first sound he had slipped away to look at some cattle in Chequer's Piece, the very last and outlying field of the farms, full a mile away, and when the messengers got to Chequer's Piece of course he was up on the Down.

So much for the parish constable's office--an office the farmers shirked whenever they could, and would not put in force when compelled to accept it.
How could a resident willingly go into a neighbour's cottage and arrest him without malice and scandal being engendered?
If he did his duty he was abused; if he did not do it, it was hinted that he favoured the offender.

As for the 'gip' who was stabbed, nothing more was heard of it; she 'traipsed' off with the rest.
Sometimes when the 'tangle-legs' got up into their heads the labourers felt an inclination to resume the ancient practices of their fore-fathers.