144 WOLF-HUNTING. 



he turned short into it, and swinging straight downwards a far 

 easier course than that of the brave Harmonic he suddenly 

 doubled his tongue, and with a thundering note proclaimed the 

 presence of the pigs. The roar seemed to say, " Here you are, 

 you villains ; turn out, and trust to your legs." In an instant 

 out bundled a brace of half-grown hog from a dense holly-bush, 

 and springing, like goats, from rock to rock, made the best of 

 their way towards the lower ground; and fiercely, in pursuit, 

 dashed the gallant hound, " swearing hard words " close at their 

 heels. 



A clump of stunted pine for one moment hid them from view : 

 but, as they emerged from this, out scampered also four huge 

 grunters, apparently in as wild a fright as their smaller fellows, 

 and rushing helter-skelter over the boulders straight into the face 

 of Harmonic. My heart stopped beating as the collision, which 

 was inevitable, took place between the foremost pigs and the 

 brave hound ; and I fancied, even at the distance at which I 

 stood, that I could hear a simultaneous grunt from the herd, as 

 they swept her headlong from a boulder into a chasm below. 

 The pigs passed on, Veteran thundering after and driving them 

 like chaff before the wind : but for some seconds nothing of 

 Harmonic could be seen, and Kerylan, who had been standing 

 close to me, watching the scene with intense interest, turned and 

 said, " Frank : that hound's back is broken ; or, my word for it, 

 she would be now in front, for a gamer animal never entered a 

 cover." 



Keryfan was wrong though; for the next instant she had 

 clambered again to the head of the boulders, and, springing 

 from one to the other, was following the leading hound with fiery 

 zeal and uninjured vigour " Bravo, Harmonic," fairly screeched 

 out Keryfan : " the bitch is all right, I see ; it would have broken 

 St. Prix's heart to have lost that hound." 



A deadly cordon of tirailleurs the peasants to a man had 



