ELK HUNTING 



take about a good line, and then her sharp, light note shall 

 be heard incessant through the run. But she has a fault, as 

 many good hounds have, and hers is a sneaking fondness 

 for pig. She has got herself into trouble more than once 

 over this weakness, and through it her kennel companions 

 have often suffered more than herself. She is not a 

 thorough-bred fox-hound like Bountiful, Lifter, and most 

 of the others ; but she is pretty near it, and it must be a 

 very bad scent that she cannot carry through the driest of 

 country. Lifter, an independent old hound of some three 

 seasons, has disappeared some time ago, and the master, 

 well aware of his value as a finder, has just asked the dog 

 boy when he last saw him, when a single note is heard high 

 up on the hillside. A deep baying note it is, and un- 

 mistakably Lifter's. 



Simultaneously almost, in the deep shade of the forest 

 trees just beyond the fringe of long grass and brambles, a 

 sudden burst of music is heard, and high above all Juno's 

 light note rings out sharp and elear. We hurry to the 

 chorus of hounds as the ominous " Woof-woof " of an 

 angry boar greets our ear, and a black form is seen tearing 

 its way through the thick stuff around us. A double find, 

 and, as far as we can tell, only Lifter with the stag. The 

 boar shows himself for an instant on the patna just as we 

 get back to the open. A thicket of bramble is no place to 

 stay in with a boar rampaging through it with a pack of 

 hounds at his heels ! Now we await developments, and 

 within a few minutes a savage bay takes place not twenty 

 yards from where we stand, then " Woof-woof" once more, 

 and a hound howls with pain, followed by a sudden silence. 

 Soon an angry roar of hounds rings out, as headed by Juno 

 the pack re-forms and the line is once more taken up. The 

 boar has had a nip on the hocks from old Lector, a plucky 



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