150 WARWICK WOODLANDS. 



fet a bullet. Be still, now, as a mouse, and tie your horse 

 ere in the cove ! Now, lads' 7 



And off he set again, rounded the knob, and making one 

 slight motion toward the nook, wherein he wished that Harry 

 should keep guard, wheeled back in utter silence, and very 

 slowly for they were close to the spot wherein, as they sup- 

 posed, the object of their chase was laid up ; and as yet but two 

 of his paths were guarded toward the plain ; Jem and his com- 

 rades having long since got with the hounds into his rear, and 

 waiting only for the rising of the sun to lay them on, and push 

 along the channel of the brook. 



This would compel him to break covert, either directly from 

 the swamp, or by one of the dry gorges mentioned. Now, 

 therefore, was the crisis of the whole matter ; for if before the 

 other passes were made good the stag should take alarm, he 

 might steal off without affording a chance of a shot, and get 

 into the mountains to the right, where they might hunt him for 

 a week in vain. 



No marble statue could stand more silently or still than 

 Harry and his favorite gray, who, with erected ears and watch- 

 ful eye, trembling a little with excitement, seemed to know 

 what he was about, and to enjoy it no less keenly than his rider. 

 Tom and the Commodore, quickening their pace as they got 

 out of ear-shot, retraced their steps quite back to the turnpike 

 road, along which Harry saw them gallop furiously, in a few 

 minutes, and turn up, half a mile off, toward the further gulley 

 he saw no more, however ; though he felt certain that the 

 Commodore was, scarce ten minutes after he lost sight of them, 

 standing within twelve paces of him, at the further angle of the 

 swamp Tom having warily determined that the two single 

 guns should take post together, while the two doubles should 

 be placed where the wild quarry could get off encountering but 

 a single sportsman. 



It was a period of intense excitement before the sun rose, 

 though it was of short duration but scarcely had his first rays 

 touched the open meadow, casting a huge gray shadow from 

 the rounded hill which covered half the valley, while all the 

 farther slope was laughing in broad light, the mist wreaths curl- 

 ing up, thinner and thinner every moment, from the broad 

 streamlet in the bottom, which here and there flashed out ex- 

 ultingly from its wood-covered margins scarcely had his first 

 rays topped the hill, before a distant shout came swelling on 



