46 WILD SPOKTS m THE SOUTH. 



" After him !" shouted Mike , and with cheer and cry 

 every soul dashed out in pursuit, and the camp that stood 

 so picturesquely still in its first awakening, after the one 

 rude rush of the chase was left deserted, while we fol- 

 lowed the wide trail and frantic cry of the hounds. 



The game, immediately after crossing the camp, 

 turned toward the river, and entered the dense canebrake 

 that fringed the shore for some miles. The hounds bayed 

 and yelled with excitement, and hunters and negroes fol- 

 lowed helter-skelter, now over grassy holes, starting the 

 duck from her covert, now over slii^pery trunks of fallen 

 trees 'that had been floated by the water, and left to 

 molder green in the damp. One moment held back by 

 a vine, at another so crowded by the reeds as to be 

 obliged to lean down and run like a rail. One moment 

 the crashing of reeds and baying of the hounds were 

 close to us ; then again they would gain on us ; but far or 

 near, we went plunging and rushing forward with a sense 

 of intentness that gave no thought to anythmg but the 

 chase. Soon we became separated ; one man, plunged 

 into a slough to his waist, was left to extricate himself; 

 another was turned here, another there, by intervening 

 obstacles, and presently I was left alone, following 

 always the fierce rush before me, that wound hither and 

 thither among the reeds, now pausing as if at bay, and 

 then rushing on to the right or the left, as the hunted 

 animal was assailed by the dogs coming up from either 

 side. 



Shortly there was a pause, and the prolonged 



