44 The Chase 



and she remained motionless to give him time to 

 recover. The hubbub vi^as dying away, and she 

 surmised that the fox had led his pursuers out on 

 the further side of the w^oods. She shivered as the 

 chill damp crept about her. A feeling of loneli- 

 ness that was almost physical possessed her. She 

 half wished that she had not forsaken the hunt 

 after all. 



Stay ! was she quite alone ? Out of the clinging, 

 ever-thickening curtain there came sounds — the 

 sounds of hoofs that struggled upwards, of an 

 animal's laboured breathing, of a man's voice that 

 encouraged and swore alternately. 



Her heart gave a sudden sharp throb. She knew 

 that voice. Though she had only met the owner 

 thereof three times she had come to know it rather 

 well. Why had he elected to come that way, she 

 asked herself? He almost seemed to be dogging 

 her steps that day. 



Impulse urged her to strike in another direction 

 before he reached her. She did not feel inclined 

 for another tete-a-tete with Nap Errol just then. 



She tapped the grey smartly with her switch, 

 more smartly than she intended, for he started and 

 plunged. At the same instant there broke out 

 immediately below them a hubbub of yelling and 

 baying that was like the shrieking of a hundred 

 demons. It rose up through the fog as from the 

 mouth of an invisible pit, and drove the grey horse 

 clean out of his senses. He reared bolt upright in 

 furious resistance to his rider's will, pawed the air 

 wildly, and being brought down again by a sharp 

 cut over the ears, flung out his heels in sheer malice 

 and bolted down the hill, straight for that pande- 

 monium of men and hounds. If the pleasures of 

 the hunt failed to attract his mistress, it was other- 



