THE HUNTED CUB 



CHAPTER V 



WHEN the cub is equipped with knowledge 

 sufficient to enable him to make a start in 

 life, and is only lacking in experience, 

 he gets his first taste of being hunted. On his 

 return to covert after his night's prowl in company 

 with his brothers and sisters, he finds the entrance 

 to the earth which has been his home blocked. 

 Scratch as he may, he cannot get in, and is un- 

 certain what to do next. There is the aroma 

 of man about the earth, and suddenly the air 

 seems filled with strange and uncouth noises. 

 All the cubs are by this time on the move, for 

 instinct teaches them that danger is abroad. 



The wood seems full of hounds, and though the 

 cubs thread the narrow passages beneath the 

 undergrowth, they find it more and more difficult 

 to evade the great blundering creatures which so 

 relentlessly pursue them. Scent improves and 

 the young entry becomes steadier, and our cub 

 realizes that the suffocating wood, foul with 

 strange smells and echoing with appalling noises, 

 is no place for him. His mind reverts to another 

 covert, a mile away across the fields, and with 

 this point in view he slips through the fence and 

 finds himself in the open. The air is sweet and 

 clean, and he strides away across the dew-drenched 

 grass, the sounds behind him growing fainter and 

 fainter in the distance. 



51 



