The Fox 193 



waiting for her on the banks. Now the waves reached 

 her body, and she looked startled and seemed to read her 

 doom in every succeeding billow. She made a move irreso- 

 lutely toward the shore, halted, and moved again. Care- 

 fully she felt her way down the slippery rock till finally the 

 sea closed over her back and she could be descried swim- 

 ming for shore. Reaching the beach, she walked out again 

 a bit to free herself from the breakers, and rested there for 

 ten or fifteen minutes longer. The huntsmen meanwhile, 

 with five or six couples of the most trusty hounds, went 

 down to the water some distance above her, with a view to 

 getting between her and the sea. She saw them coming, 

 but the cold March wind had evidently chilled her to the 

 marrow ; she moved with stifl^ened gait along the shore 

 until she came to a great boulder, behind which she stole 

 cautiously, and lay down in a pool of water left by the last 

 tide in a hollow of the rocks. A moment later the hounds 

 hit ofif her trail, and in another instant the lot of them were 

 upon her. 



To me, unaccustomed as I was, it gave a sickening feel- 

 ing, despite its novelty and interest. I can best express 

 myself in the characteristic language of an American girl 

 after her first ride down the great toboggan slide at Mon- 

 treal. "'I would n't have missed it for a thousand dollars," 

 she said, '* but I would n't go through it again for two thou- 

 sand." Perhaps there is nothing like getting used to a 

 thing; perhaps if I hunted year after year with these 

 famous hounds I should become hardened to such specta- 

 cles; perhaps the wild red deer, killed by these hounds to 

 the number of one hundred every season, become at last. 



