78 THE SILVER FOX 



ness of encomium and advice from Major 

 Bunbury. There was a check or two, when 

 she was aware of puffing horses snatching 

 their wind, and flushed riders, telling each 

 other that it was a great run, and then again 

 the brown country flowing past her, and the 

 unfailing guile of Isabella. 



It was an hour and a half before Glasgow, 

 dropping down into a road from the top of 

 a heathery bank, found the hounds at fault 

 on the edge of a wide and famished expanse, 

 half marsh, half bog. They seemed beaten 

 and spiritless ; some were already sitting 

 idle and panting on their haunches, and one 

 of the younger ones was baying at a little 

 bare-legged girl, who was uttering lament- 

 able cries at finding herself in the middle 

 of the pack. She and the few starveling 

 cattle she was tending were the only living 

 creatures in sight. It was a flat and in- 

 explicable conclusion, but it was final 

 beyond all ingenuity of casting. 



It was a twelve-mile ride home for Slaney. 

 She turned Isabella s head almost immedi- 



