like that for an old fish, did 'ee? I thought somebody was drow' Before he could finish the word he saw and, understanding, added in a changed tone: 'Well, well, they prents beat all I ever did see. I'd give a sack of bests to clap eyes on the varmint as left 'em. Where's a lyin', wonder. Anywheres handy, do 'ee think V
'It's a safe offer you're making, William Richard. You'll nae see the canny vagabond the day. He's no couching near the kill, I'm thinking, but miles and miles awa'—at Lone Tarrn, maybe, or by the Leeddens. That print'—and he pointed to a footmark half in and half out of the water—'seems to say he was travelling up-water.'
The bailiff was right in supposing that the otter had sought a distant couch, but wrong as to the direction it took and its whereabouts. At that moment the animal was curled up asleep in Rundle's oak coppice overhanging the estuary, ten miles away as the river winds. The next day he was in the bat-cave, but he had not come to stay. At night he was off again, nor did he arrest his steps save to fish and call along the lonely reaches which led to the swamp he was bound for, a good league beyond the bridge. Indeed, he was always on the move, seeming to think it unsafe
