132 THE LIFE OF A FOXHOUND. 



apparently scarcely large enough tx) hold a 

 rat, when bang the fox sprang from the 

 middle and away he raced, whisking the 

 water from his brush like a maid trundling 

 her mop. We rushed at him in a body, but 

 might as well have attempted to get to the 

 head of a stroke of soaped lightning. 



"A trick worthy of the devil's own," said 

 Trimbush, laughing, '* but I proved a match 

 for him this time." 



" How was it that we could not carry the 

 scent down stream? " inquired I, as the 

 devil's own became lost to view over the brow 

 of a short but steep hill. 



** Because," replied my companion, " he 

 reached the water some seconds before our- 

 selves, and swimming so far down the stream, 

 he gained the little bank of mud, where he 

 squatted, with all the scent washed away from 

 him. We could, therefore, carry it no 

 further than where he took water, and as he 

 did not break from it, the reason is obvious 

 for our being unable to act otherwise than we 

 did." 



" I can't think how you came to suspect 

 that he had laid up there," remarked I. 



** I never knew a fox to do so before," 



