THE CHASE 169 



the church bell had summoned from outlying 

 homesteads. 



They crossed the water below the pool, the 

 squire examined the tracks, the hounds were laid 

 on, and the rocky gorge with all the wood about 

 it immediately resounded with their wild music, 

 while the squire and every man behind him 

 thrilled at the prospect of at last coming up with 

 the creature whose movements had so long 

 baffled them. The ground was very rough, and 

 in parts swampy, yet not a man turned back. 

 That active, hard-conditioned followers made 

 light of the obstacles and the pace was, of course, 

 not surprising ; but that the landlord, the clerk, 

 and the chef — short -legged, eleven-score men 

 every one of them — should scramble over rocks 

 and fallen timber, flounder through thickets and 

 boggy places, and still hold on, bedraggled and 

 breathless though they were, testified to the 

 fascination the pursuit of the giant otter had for 

 them. 



Some two miles above Longen Pool the squire 

 caught sight of spraints on a boulder in the 

 middle of the river, and knew at once from their 

 position at its upper end that the otter which 

 had dropped them was travelling down-water. 

 At once he recalled the hounds and began draw- 



22 



