Your
shrubberies about the house and live hedges and little meadow copses are
very pretty and picturesque, Squire, but a bare house on the top of a
treeless hill would be infinitely better to stand a siege."
"Aye, aye, Nash; but I'm no gaun tae cut doon my bonnie trees an' busses
for a wheen murderin' vagabones."
"Well, I'll get a gun from one of the men in the kitchen, and explore
the hillside below the Captain."
Having secured Ben Toner's gun, the best of the lot, the detective
walked down the garden to the gate, where he found Perrowne vainly
endeavouring to comfort Muggins. The poor dog did not even whine, but
shivered as he stood, otherwise paralyzed with abject terror.
"Crouch down by the fence," whispered the detective in the parson's ear,
and at once crouched down beside him.
"Do you see that moving object coming up the hill from the birches? By
Jove! there's another crawling behind it. What is it?"
"It's an animal of some sawrt," answered Perrowne.
"That accounts for your dog's fear. It isn't a bear, is it? There may be
some about after early berries."
"Now, it's not a bear, though I've been towld dawgs are very much afraid
of bears.
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