\"There s no barbed wire，\" said Wendy Lamport， looking along the
hedgerow.
\"That s something， I suppose，\" said her companion， Gordon
Briggs， grudgingly. He was verging on late middle age and difficult
about almost everything.
\"And，\" she said， looking over into the field， \"not a bull in sight.\"
\"I should hope not，\" responded Gordon Briggs roundly.
\"There s a bylaw about bulls in fields in Calleshire. It s illegal to
have a bull more than twelve months old in any field in the county
containing a public footpath.\"
\"No warning notices， either， that I can see，\" carried on the girl，
completing her survey of the terrain before them.
\"Warning notices，\" pronounced Briggs pedantically， \"have no
significance whatsoever in relation to public footpaths and rights
of way. You should know that by now， Wendy.\"
\"Yes， Gordon.\" Wendy Lamport nodded. She had heard him say
it time and time again. \"It doesn t stop them trying it on， though，
does it?\" she added.
\"Landowners can put what they like on notice-boards，\" de-
clared Briggs， adding militantly， \"but they can t keep us out.\"
\"Let them try， that s all，\" said Wendy Lamport loyally. \"Just let
them try.\"
\"That s the spirit，\" said Gordon Briggs.
It might have been the spirit behind the Berebury Country
Footpaths Society but their actual rallying cry was more ambigu-
ous. \"Every walk a challenge\" was the motto printed under the
masthead on their writing paper. The challenge， though， was not
usually to the walker. The gauntlet was thrown down in front of
the luckless owners of the land over which they proposed to walk.
If， that is， those owners of the land happened to have an official
public footpath or right of way running over it.
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