'The Poacher; Or, Joseph Rushbrook' by Frederick Marryat is a novel that follows the lives of three men on a blustery night in Devonshire. The story opens with two sober men carrying a drunken man who can barely stand, all of whom have been indulging in ale. As they rest on a bridge over a rushing stream, the conversation turns dark, and they discuss the possibility of tossing the drunken man into the water to end his troubles. But who is this drunken man, and why does he deserve such a fate?
