Frampton’s case was the second on the list. The preliminaries were soon settled, and the issue joined. Frampton, looking about him, saw that the Court was crammed with people. All the Hunt was there. Wherever he turned his eyes, he saw a face staring at him with hostility. He liked hostility. He lived by it. These were his enemies; he had fought them in the War and ever since. He thought them idle and stupid; and if he had to fight them on points in which they were neither of these things, why, all the better. Anyhow, there was his real enemy, Annual-Tilter; he’d brought Annual-Tilter there; that was worth any money. He looked at the Tilter and his wife; though they were surrounded by all their friends, they seemed uneasy. He rejoiced at the sight.
But the case had begun. A policeman, again humouring the slow scribe, was with maddening prolixity saying:
“On hearing that a trespass a trespass with damage had been said to have been committed at Spirr Wood in this County I went to the said Wood . . .” He went on to say how he had seen Spirr Wood, its gate, unhinged, its battered fence, but no notices of Private. Then, acting on information received, he had spoken to the accused, who had not denied the fact.
The accused, the Brass-Eyed Sarah, Pinkie, and Pob were now sworn. Pob, who was not at his usual bright best, spoke for the three of them. He said:
“It was a rag, that’s all it was; just a rag. You know, he turned us out of Spirr Wood. He wouldn’t let the hounds draw Spirr. I mean to say, what? So I said, let’s put a drag across the covert. That’s all it was; just a rag.”
“Yes,” came the question, “but after laying the drag, you took certain steps to ensure that the hounds should follow the drag. Will you tell the Court what those steps were?”
“It was only just a rag. We told old Bill to let the hounds hunt the drag, and Joe to view a fox away.”
“These were the Hunt servants, in short?”
“Yes; the Huntsman and the Whip.”
“Did you give them anything to encourage them to this course? How much did you bribe them with?”
“I say, you know, it wasn’t a bribe, what. It was a tip. I gave them the usual sort of tip. One always gives them something on the opening day.”
“Nothing more than your usual tip? How much altogether? And did this sum come from your own pockets or from all you three conspirators?”
“I paid; the others said they would give it me presently.”
“Did they?”
“No.”
“Why not? Have you dunned them? Why haven’t they paid?”
“They’ve had rather a bad week or two with the dogs.”
“But bribing the Hunt servants was not enough for your purpose. All three of you were active at Tibb’s Cross, were you not, saying that Mr. Mansell wanted the hounds to draw Spirr? You unhinged the gate? You took down all the notices to support these misstatements?”
“It was all just a rag; that’s all it was.”
“But you did take down the notice-boards, and you did spread that report, a false report, knowing it to be false?”
“It was only a rag. We wanted the rag to come off. It was only fun.”
“Is lying fun to you?”
“We didn’t think anybody would mind a bit of fun.”
“Would you have thought it fun if somebody had bribed the Hunt to ride over your mother’s flower-garden?”
“Yes.”
“Would she have thought it fun?”
“She’d have entered into the fun of the thing.”
“What is the fun of the thing?”
“Why, just doing the thing; scoring someone off. We were scoring him off for stopping Spirr Wood. Any decent chap would see it was meant for a rag.”
“You think that when three people old enough and civilised enough to know better do an insolent and harmful thing, a man is bound to conclude that they only do it for fun?”
“Yes, of course they only do it for fun.”
“But where is the fun, will you tell me? Is it fun to insult a man? Is it fun to spoil his property? Is it fun to break the laws?”
Brass-Eyed Sarah said that if a man had no sense of humour it was useless arguing.
Poor Bill and Joe gave evidence that they had undertaken to support the rag, and that they were very sorry. Annual-Tilter said that he had been misled by the statements of the three young people, that the ban on Spirr had been removed. He said that the Hunt Secretary had given a very full apology and sincere expression of regret, which he thought would have been ample. He was new to the country, and was sorry to have begun his Mastership on an estate where fox-hunters were not welcome. As to the trespass, he had always understood that hounds might follow a fox anywhere, a fox being vermin, and his death a benefit to the community.
The magistrates conferred among themselves in low tones. As the matter seemed to them to be important, they withdrew, so that they might debate it in their room. While they were away, the friends of the Bright Young Things rallied round their cronies. Frampton heard Pob told that he was “marvous, absooty marvous.”