354 SYSTEM OF KENNEL AND 



Will Headman had been placed upon the back of a 

 big one, over sixteen hands high, which could carry 

 his weight and take a good place in a four-mile race 

 — for such this was without mistake : and, like the 

 trial between horses and hounds, some years ago, 

 over the Beacon course at Newmarket, the hounds 

 had the best of it. The old squire's hounds had not 

 been trained upon legs of mutton or sheep's trotters, 

 but they were in first-rate condition, from hard 

 work and proper diet ; and the four miles were accom- 

 plished in a few seconds under eleven minutes. 



" Now, Sam, they have him \" cried George Tracy. 

 " That black hound has, I see, turned him on the 

 point of the hill, and the second catches him by the 

 back, and the only fellow within three hundred yards 

 of them is Jem. You and I hope to be in second 

 and third ; and Will Headman has been making up 

 leeway at such an extraordinary pace that he must 

 be fourth ; and I would not undertake to say that he 

 cannot pass both of us yet." 



The triumph of the old master — who, by the way, 

 had set to work right manfully in this struggle, re- 

 solved to show what he had done, and could do still 

 although past the years allotted to mankind — was 

 complete when he beheld his first whipper-in alone, 

 with the fox held over his head, and the hounds lying 

 and standing around him, and not another horseman 

 yet within fifty yards of him. 



" Now, gentlemen," he exclaimed, as some of the 

 stiff-necked ones began dropping in one by one on 

 cock-tailed horses, " you see we can beat you with 

 all the odds against us. Our hounds have just 



