have not been so badly off, Terence. He goes out with two or three more of
the boys directly we halt, laving the other servants to get the tents
ready, and he generally brings us half a dozen fish, sometimes a dozen,
that he has got out of the stream.

"He is an old hand, is Tim, and if he can't get them for dinner he gets
them for breakfast. He catches them with night-lines and snares, and all
sorts of poaching tricks. I know he bought a bag with four or five pounds
of lime at Torres Vedras, and managed to smuggle it away in the regimental
baggage. I asked him what it was for, and the rascal tipped me a wink, as
much as to say, Don't ask no questions, master; and I believe that he
drops a handful into a likely pool when he comes across one. I have never
dared to ask him, for my conscience would not let me countenance such an
unsportsmanlike way of getting round the fish."

"I don't think that there is much harm in it under the present
circumstances," Terence laughed. "It is not sport, but it is food. I am
afraid, Tim, that you must have been poaching a good deal at home or you
would never have thought of buying lime before starting on this march."

"I would scorn to take in an Oirish fish, yer honour!" Hoolan said,
indignantly. "But it seems to me that as the people here are trating us
in just as blackguardly a manner as they can, shure it is the least we can
do to catch their fish any way we can, just to pay them off."

"Well, looking at it in that light, Tim, I will say no more against the
practice. I don't think I could bring myself to lime even Portuguese
water, but my conscience would not trouble me at eating fish that had been
caught by somebody else."