THE SILVER FOX 151 



my neck — that's what it is — and the sooner 

 the better." 



An old hound came working and yelping 

 up through the dead bracken ; she flung up 

 her head with a long shriek of excitement 

 as she crossed the path ; half-a-dozen others 

 rushed to her well-known cry, and went 

 streaming past on the line. The grey horse 

 was quivering and hopping from leg to leg 

 with excitement. Hugh could feel his heart 

 beating up through the saddle. 



"All right, you devil," he said, turning 

 him through the trees at a trot ; " you'll 

 get a skinful of it now." 



The bank was blind and high, and the 

 last hounds were struggling over it with 

 difficulty ; Hugh rode along it for a hun- 

 dred yards or so at a canter, with branches 

 hitting him in the face, till he found a place 

 that seemed possible, and sent the horse at 

 it with a cruel dig of the spurs. In three 

 big bounds the grey was at the fence, the 

 fourth landed him on top among briars and 

 furze, and a drop of seven or eight feet 



