TEE SILVER FOX 29 



one of them. *' I heard the dogs yowling, 

 and whin I seen him, there wasn't the 

 breadth o' yer nail between himself and the 

 first o' thim." 



That which the speaker had referred to as 

 ** a gully" was a covered-in drain that carried 

 off the waters of a small stream beneath a 

 road and down the hillside, its lower open- 

 ing being at this moment blocked by a 

 large yellow cur, whose owner was sedu- 

 lously pinching its tail as a stimulant to its 

 reluctant advance upon the fox. A small 

 group of riders huddled, with turned-up 

 collars, under the lee of a high furzy fence ; 

 their muddy horses steamed, with the wet 

 reins hanging loose on their necks. One 

 lady and four men were all that the rocks 

 and fences of Fornagh had left of the field. 

 The dispensary doctor s chestnut was bleed- 

 ing from a cut on the fetlock, Mr. James 

 Mahony, a hard-riding farmer, had a dark 

 patch of mud on his shoulder, and Major 

 Bunbury was swearing quietly to himself as 

 he examined an over-reach that had stained 



