Well, if we don't hang together on our story we will surely hang seperately for it. The only problem is explaining why I went snipe hunting while leaving my shotgun in our room at the inn...and why were Cadwalliter and I therefore shooting snipe with pistols? Perhaps we can claim to have fought a duel, which is also illegal, but less seriously so (especially as no one died), and were therefore anxious to leave and seek more discreet medical care.

Perhaps this is why we came so far from home, with snipe only a cover story, planning to settle a long running dispute in this way, which must be why we seemed so nervous and conspiratorial all week, trying to find a good time to do it when there might not be any witnesses, finally settling on the tiem when we new many people would be bust at the church, there being some special service planned for that afternoon. Of course our deadly business explains our preoccupation with religion in the days leading up to the (potentially) fatal event. Obviously we also had to wait a few days extra for Cadwalliter's second to arrive (Flitworth). As a gentleman I brought my staff (a stout bearer for the wounded, and dear Agnes, who would be terribly anxious all week if I left her behind, potentially a nurse as well, and of course a doctor). Stoatly was my second naturally....probably also the real cause of the dispute if truth be told, but it's along story (we should work one out).

Of course the doctor's nerves nearly broke entirely as we sat in Church a few times, as the horror of his probable duties hit him, thinking of a funeral perhaps in that selfsame church, just a few days away. He got so overwrought that it provoked some mad rushing back and forth on trains the day before the fatal event as we struggled with our resolve, and tried to find a more comfortable church for our final prayers. The doctor even tried to hide on one train for while, hoping to deter us, and making some people think he had jumped clear off the train...he can be so manipulative at times. Hurt himself quite nastily about he head while he was at it. But anyway, we went ahead with it in the end, the effects not as bad as feared, but potentially dire, and so we skulked south as soon as the doctor thought I could be moved.

The misguided attempt of Stoatly's to have a rabbi talk us out of it on the last day was for nought, and as for what happened at the church that day...(best not mention him at all if they don't ask) we saw the fire from the train station as we crept back from the wood.but we weren't sure whether it was the church or not. Seems almost fitting, as if God were angry that sinning day. Cadwalliter and I have made up in consequence of all this, quite temporary, lunacy.

I mean, the rigid cat prank at the dinner table was an inexcuseable affront, but outside the world of the devonshire gentry these things become less serious, on reflection. probably the whole painful episode will bring us all together in the end.

But I guess paying a serious fine, or maybe some short custodial period, might be hard to avoid. But guilty consciences in bascially good men, do not shie from accepting responsibility.

Previous item: AGPSIV: The snipe-hunting accident (1st edition)
Index: How do we explain the Church burning down? A debate.
Next item: AGPSIV: Hunting snipe with pistols

Pages by Sam Kington (sam@illuminated.co.uk )
Page last updated: 16th March