WARWICK WOODLANDS. 153 



speed nor strength appeared to be impaired, so fleetly did he 

 scour the meadow. 



"He will cross Frank yet!" cried Archer. "Mark! mark 

 him, Forester 1" 



But, as he spoke, he set his rifle down against the fence, and 

 holloaed to the hounds, which instantly, obedient to his well- 

 known and cheery whoop, broke covert in a body, and settled, 

 heads up and sterns down, to the blazing scent. 



At the same moment A came trotting out from his post, 



gun in hand ; while at a thundering gallop, blaspheming aw- 

 fully as he came on, and rating them for " know-nothins, and 

 blunderin' etarnal spoil-sports," Tom rounded the farther hill, 

 and spurred across the level. By this time they were all in 

 sight of Forester, who stood on foot, close to his horse, in the 

 mouth of the last gorge, the buck running across him sixty 

 yards off, and quartering a little from him toward the road ; 

 the hounds were, however, all midway between him and the 

 quarry, and as the ground sloped steeply from the marksman, 

 he was afraid of firing low but took a long, and, as it seemed, 

 sure aim at the head. 



The rifle flashed a tine flew, splintered by the bullet, from 

 the brow antler, not an inch above the eye. 



" Give him the other !" shouted Archer. " Give him the 

 other barrel I" 



But Frank shook his head spitefully, and dropped the muzzle 

 of his piece. 



"By thunder! then, he's forgot his bullets and hadn't 

 nothen to load up agen, when he missed the first time !'' 



" Ha ! ha ! ha !'' roared once again the Commodore " ha ! 

 ha ! hah ! ha ! ha !" till rock and mountain rang again. 



" By the Etarnal !" exclaimed Draw, perfectly frantic with pas- 

 sion and excitement "By thunder! A , I guess you'd laugh 



if your best friends was all a dyin' at your feet. You would for 

 sartain ! But look, look ! what the plague's Harry goin' at ?'' 



For when he saw that Forester had now, for some reason or 

 other, no farther means of stopping the stag's career, Archer 

 had set spurs to his horse, and dashed away at a hard furious 

 gallop after the wounded buck. The hounds, which had lost sight 

 of it as it leaped a high stone wall with much brush round the 

 base of it, were running fast and furious on the scent but still, 

 though flagging somewhat in his speed, the stag was leaving 

 them. He had turned, as the last shot struck his horns, down 

 7* 



