62 IOX-HOUND, FOREST, AND PRAIRIE. 



fire and frost : and Firr was soon able to spot a fox dodging 

 about it. A quiet tallyho brought hounds into play in a 

 moment ; and immediately afterwards the huntsman was in 

 the Fosse, viewing his fox away to Six Hills. The whips were 

 guarding other quarters of the covert ; and he had to depend 

 on his own exertions to stop the one couple which alone came 

 down the wind on the line. Riding back to the covertside, he 

 yet found no response to horn or voice ; it was obvious at once 

 that something must be amiss ; and without loss of a moment 

 Master and man set to work to solve the enigma by cutting in 

 between the gorse and the wood. A whip came galloping up 

 to tell what already seemed a horrid certainty — viz., that the 

 body of the pack were away on another fox. A bystander con- 

 firmed the news, pointing towards the Wolds — but neither one 

 nor the other informant was ready with more than the vaguest 

 information. A plunge in the dark into the depths of even 

 fifty acres of woodland clay would have been a rash move on 

 such hypotheses. Better by far to make safe the grass side, 

 and at least ensure not missing a chance of the best direction. 

 A little bridle gate that would hold a field for a quarter of an 

 hour was an easy patent slip to half a dozen men bent on help- 

 ing each other. Now, where are hounds? Big D, little D, 

 Saxon tongue and Leicestershire lingo; pretty manners and 

 shocking mutterings. There they go! A quarter of a mile 

 awa y — and not a sinner with them — as, I pledge my spurs, I 

 have viewed them time after time disappearing from Thrussing- 

 ton Wolds. But is it not splendid ground over which to catch 

 them — where you have only to drop into one field to find a way 

 out directly before you, where a horse wants but a turn of speed 

 and to have been taught to jump a hurdle ? The Ragdale 

 fences are meet for a galloping hack ; though, stretching down 

 to the lower level of the Wreake, come the rich feeding grounds 

 and sturdy fences of the Hoby Lordship. Passing to the right 

 of Ragdale Hall, it was riding all in the dark— one hedgerow 

 closely masking the next, and only the instinct of direction, 

 .and the desperate necessity of the situation, giving men any 



