Their arms were raised, fingers laced on the tops of their heads, and their faces were obscured because they were lying face-down. It seemed to him to be the most humiliating position the gamekeeper could have put them in. ‘Stand up, gentlemen,’ he said, in his best commanding voice, and pinned the gamekeeper with a no-nonsense stare when the man tried to argue. The two poachers stood and he got his first proper view of them. One was considerably older than the other, and both of them had clearly gone to great pains to avoid being seen at night. The whites of their terrified eyes glowed in the candlelight in stark contrast to their soot-blackened faces and dark clothes. Despite this, it did not take a genius to work out that neither of them was out to make a profit from their labours. Both were painfully thin, and filthy bare feet poked out of the bottom of their ragged trousers. These poachers could not even afford shoes. ‘What have you got to say for yourselves?’ he asked flatly, although he already suspected that he knew the answer to his own question.
What do You think about That Despicable Rogue (2016)?
