144 Vixen 



Poor little fellow, he whimpered sadly as he 

 crawled into his box. After half an hour there 

 was a great outcry among the dogs, and by 

 their straight-away tonguing through the far 

 woods I knew they were chasing Vix. Away 

 up north they went in the direction of the rail, 

 way and their noise faded from hearing. Next 

 morning the hound had not come back. We 

 soon knew why. Foxes long ago learned what 

 a railroad is ; they soon devised several ways of 

 turning it to account. One way is when hunted 

 to walk the rails for a long distance just before 

 a train comes. The scent, always poor on iron, 

 is destroyed by the train and there is always a 

 chance of hounds being killed by the engine. 

 But another way more sure, but harder to play, 

 is to lead the hounds straight to a high trestle 

 just ahead of the train, so that the engine over- 

 takes them on it and they are surely dashed to 

 destruction. 



This trick was skilfully played, and down 

 below we found the mangled remains of old 

 Ranger and learned that Vix was already 

 wreaking her revenge. 



That same night she returned to the yard 

 before Spot's weary limbs could bring him 

 back and killed another hen and brought it to 

 Tip, and stretched her panting length beside 



