CHAPTER XIII.

BAULK AND WINKLE JOE.

DEN'S favourite among the shore - shooters was "Baulk,"-good-natured, unfashionable, accumulating Baulk. What his eyes saw and desired he would have, if his legs and hands, supplemented by his gun and leaping-pole, could procure it for him;—anything in or about the marshes, that is to say. All the flats, mile upon mile of them, were cut up by dykes and lagoons of various width and depth, with the marsh main-road leading on to the sea-wall. Definite boundaries existed, although they were not easily recognisable by strangers. For one man to trespass on the marsh or flat of another, was an unpardonable offence, unless permission had previously been sought and obtained; and it was fiercely resented by the

grazier proprietors or renters for the time being. The sea-wall, the saltings, and the shore were common property, or at any rate free to all; but what was on the marshlands in the way of fin, fur, or feather, belonged to those who owned them.

There was one marketable commodity there in vast quantities in the proper seasons. Mushrooms grew fine and large on the grazing lands. If you were caught in the act of taking them, the matter was very simply settled: either you received a right good thrashing, or you gave one to some one else. Each took the law so far as it was possible into his own hands. This system was found to work well; it did not run you into needless law expenses. Occasionally after having, as the folks said, "knocked each other into cocked-hats," and honour being satisfied, the trespassers, or the owner and the offender, would repair together to the one bare bleak inn on the foreshore and wash down any remaining illfeeling in a tumbler of ague medicine. Having done that, they often returned, both parties, to the contested or forbidden ground again, or an invitation to come at some future time was freely given.

In Baulk's case extreme measures were rarely

resorted to, for with his long ash leaping-pole, having a circular piece fixed at its bottom, he would leap and clear all the dykes that came in his way, followed only by as many and as hearty curses as were bestowed on that naughty little jackdaw of Rheims. Flighter, Spring-heel-Jack, the Kangaroo, were the titles given him. Neither curses nor nicknames had any effect on Baulk. He took toll from man and beast, each in its season-hares, rabbits, fish, and wild-fowl, and mushrooms too. His speech was slow and drawling, in curious contradiction to his movements. "Ef sich things hed bin made an' growed fur pertickler people, they'd oughter hev their names on or about 'em sumwheres," he was wont to remark.

Baulk was a very prince of marsh-trotters, and a lover of all wild creatures; in fact he lived with them entirely, one might say. With him Den roamed over the flats for whole days in succession. His graphic anecdotes about the marsh folks were something to be remembered. He took life as he found it, in a merry, happy-go-lucky fashion. A son of one of the graziers-Ned-was a great favourite of his and of Den's. "Master Ned has been good to me many a

time when I was run hard aground," he would say to Den. "He give me this 'ere shootin' suit. He said it was old, an' he reckoned it warn't up to much. Why, bless ye, it seems to me to be brand span new, an' fits me as ef I'd been measured fur it."

To women and children, as well as to birds and animals, Baulk was gentle and considerate; but when he was affronted by one of his own sex, the less there was in his way the better it was for all. Baulk's greatest pride were Master Ned's greyhounds, for he had trained them; and he had broken in Ned's pointers too. Some of the farmers had men up from the fens of Lincolnshire and Cambridge, -"amphibious nondescripts" these were called by would-be wits amongst the other graziers. These men were always much disliked on the flats; they brought strange ways with them, such as were not approved of by the marsh folks.

One morning Baulk was giving Master Ned's longdogs a spin after a hare. She cleared the dykes and entered a farmer's marsh, near to where two of the strange "lookers" had their beats. Clearing the dyke with his leaping-pole, Baulk followed his dogs, and they killed in the marsh. Whilst he stood there

caressing his dogs, the hare in his hands, the men came up and demanded it from him, threatening at the same time to kill the dogs.

Then was the time to see the gentle Baulk transformed-Baulk, who never killed a worm without reason. The low pleasant voice the women found it. so agreeable to listen to-and they must be allowed some judgment in certain matters-became hoarse with passion, and he fairly roared. Stamping the round piece of wood off the end of his ash leapingpole, he grasped it in the middle, his eyes flashing fire.

"Ye pair o' web-footed mud-nozzlers, thet's hed tu leave yer own drowned land because ye hadn't got the sense tu swim! You'll hurt the dogs! I'll squash ye!" And swinging his pole in a dangerous fashion, he made for the strangers, a dog on either side of him first, and then both a little in front, showing their teeth, all ready for the fray. The Lincolnshire men fled; and it was well they did, for Baulk, not being likely to control himself when opposed, was still less likely to keep his dogs in check, either of which could have coursed and pulled down a stag unwounded.