So The
Oaken Window-Seat In The Gun-Room Is As Polished And Smooth As An Old
Saddle; For If The Squire Is Indoors, He Is Certain To Be There.
He often
rests there after half an hour's work on one or other of the guns in the
rack;
For, though he seldom uses but one, he likes to take the locks to
pieces upon a little bench which he has fitted up, and where he has a
vice, tools, a cartridge-loading apparatus, and so forth, from which the
room acquired its name. With the naked eye, however, as the road is half
a mile distant, it is not possible to distinguish persons, except in
cases of very pronounced individuality. Nevertheless old 'Ettles,' the
keeper, always declared that he could see a hare run up the down from the
park, say a mile and a half. This may be true; but in the gun-room there
is a field-glass, said to have been used at the siege of Seringapatam,
which the squire can bring to bear upon the road in an instant, for from
constant use at the same focus there is a rim round the tarnished brass.
No time, therefore, need be lost in trials; it can be drawn out to the
well-known mark at once. The window itself is large, but there is a
casement in it, - a lesser window, - which can be thrown open with a mere
twist of the thumb on the button, and as it swings open it catches itself
on a hasp.
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