48 THE PIKE 



tried a golden one, with no effect ; then selected a 

 smaller size, silvered on one side, coppered in the 

 concave. It was probable that nothing but small fish 

 would come to this, and so for a time it befell, the pike 

 successively returned being of 3 lb., i^lb., and 3^ lb., 

 taken at much too long intervals to satisfy anyone 

 just before luncheon. 



We had a bit of diversion in listening to the 

 hounds, the cheery cries of the huntsmen, and the 

 music of the horn in a wood a little ahead of our 

 anchorage. There being a deliciously green interval 

 of upland between the further wood and that oppo- 

 site us, I kept a sharp look-out if haply the fox came 

 that way. The field soon seemed, however, to be 

 receding ; the cheery clamour of the hunt grew 

 fainter and fainter, and by and-by we heard the 

 horses, like charging cavalry, clattering over a distant 

 bridge, doubtless in pursuit of another fox to whose 

 scent the hounds had been diverted. We were 

 discussing this probability when out of the wood in 

 which the hounds had been working ten minutes 

 earlier came the hunted, draggle-tailed fox in person. 

 The poor refugee had evidently had a hard time 

 of it, for he cantered ah ! so wearily across the 

 sward, not noticing the rabbits which scampered 

 right and left as he advanced, and disappeared, with 



