Sir Edward Leithen was a philosopher, with an acute sense of the ironies of life, and as he reflected that here was a laird, a Tory, and a strict preserver of game working himself into a passion over the moral rights of the poacher, he suddenly relapsed into helpless mirth. Colonel Raden regarded him sternly and uncomprehendingly, but Janet smiled, for she too had an eye for comedy.
“I’m tremendously grateful to you,” Lamancha said. “You know more about stalking than all of us put together, and we want your advice.”
“Janet,” commanded her parent, “you have the best brain in the family. I’ll be obliged if you’ll apply it to this problem.”
For an hour the anxious conclave surrounded the spread-out ordnance map. Wattie was summoned, and with a horny finger expounded the probable tactics of
