CHASING AND RACING 109 



be harboured and tended by dwellers within the hunt, 

 there was no grave anxiety at the moment ; but when 

 days passed and no sign or news of the missing hounds 

 was forthcoming, advertisements and notices were 

 issued, offering a handsome reward for their recovery. 

 Nothing happened. The five and a half couples 

 seemed to have vanished into thin air, or to have been 

 swallowed up by the earth. Ah ! the alternative gave 

 Jack the hint. He counted the skulls. Yes, there 

 were exactly eleven of the grisly frontispieces. 

 " Why ! '* he exclaimed, " I'm darned if these ain't 

 the hounds what was lost twenty years agone ! " And 

 undoubtedly he was right. These poor creatures had 

 evidently squeezed themselves into the wide opening 

 of the earth in pursuit of the quarry and had, one by 

 one, congregated in the little cavity. Then the chalky 

 soil had probably fallen behind them completely block- 

 ing them in. They had torn and scratched in their 

 vain attempt to find a means of egress, but had only 

 succeeded in enlarging the death chamber. It is to 

 be hoped that suffocation brought a more merciful 

 and speedier end than stark starvation ; but anyway, 

 the tragedy, as reconstructed, is a pitiful one. 



