Blair Collection > Rhys Lewis, minister of Bethel

424 RHYS LEWIS.
and I had no inclination to rake up old stories. After that, I
met him many times ; and, before he became an utter slave to
drink, I used to visit him at his lodgings for a chat and a
bit of news of the old home, which he and your uncle often
visited, raiding the squire's game. They didn't conceal the
fact from me, and I wouldn't have cared had they stolen every
pheasant in the place, for I owed the old a grudge. I
never liked your uncle, but I could get along very well with
your father; the reason, perhaps, being that we both had such
a deadly enmity toward the squire. Your uncle never cared
who owned the game, as long as he could get hold of it; but
your father took a special pleasure in saying above his prey :
' Here's the Hall owners birds! They've cost him ten shillings
a head ! ' Your father and uncle feathered the estate system-
atically throughout the years, and if you were to put me on my
oath, I could not swear that some of the pheasants have not
been on my table, for I was a friend of your father's. Fine
policeman, ain't I ? In the eating of those pheasants, my old
vengeance was better than any sauce. I used to wonder why
the two escaped capture for so long, until I got the explanation.
You remember Nic'las of Garth Ddu ? It was he who managed
their expeditions, and found the pair a hiding place. Your
father would tell me Nic'las was an old dealer in game, who
knew half the poachers in the kingdom, and had done business
with most of them. He had made a lot of money that way, and
your father and uncle had been regular customers of his before
he retired. It was your father who persuaded him to buy
Garth Ddu, which was a city of refuge for him and your uncle
ever after. The two kept up a constant correspondence with
old Nic'las. As you yourself are aware, no one over yonder
looked on old Nic'las as quite a yard ' square ; ' but your
father told me, many times, that if ever anybody was thirty-
seven inches to the yard, Nic'las was the man. It was he who
was their scout, and he took pleasure in the work. He walked
the old paths, through the Hall Park and Berth Goch, at
every hour of the night, without being suspected by anybody,
but feared, rather, as a lunatic. He knew the exact spot
which the keepers were watching, every night through the year.
A.11 that happened in the town was carried to him by the old