The Master of the Teviotdale. 23 



the Town Clock as he lies in his bed, which saves all 

 candle reference to his watch on an otter-hunting 

 morning. 



Some of the otter hounds have been working with 

 Sandy in the Carlisle pack ; but Royal, Collier, and 

 Ringwood are still (1870) in kennel with Teddy, Piper, 

 Tom, and the other terriers, who " get round the otter 

 like a collar of leeches." Two greyhounds (one of 

 them old Artful), Slash, old Major (who is almost 

 blind), Judge (the setter), and Stormer have tickets- 

 of-leave in the stable ; Billy, Bobby, and Ragman 

 are a trio by themselves ; and Black Jack, who 

 will fight any mortal thing, occupies the boot of the 

 break. There is also a magnificent bitch, Melody, 

 from Mr. Stonehewer's which has no superior in a cold 

 scent, and Little Pod, a puppy of The Dwarfs, is quite 

 a character. 



The Doctor's deposition touching the attempted 

 capture of Billy is worth preserving : " I saw the man 

 at the head of Baker's Close, coquetting with Billy, 

 and marked him as a stranger, with an eye to the dog. 

 The two disappeared. I got into position at the 

 other end of the Close, and took him by the throat ; 

 he threw down the rope, and I made him pick it up 

 again. He tried to break my arm ; but I knew the 

 old dodge. He seized me by the wrist, and ran 

 under it. I stopped him with one on the larynx ; 

 he opened his mouth wider than any otter hound 

 he was nearly asphyxiated. It was such a nasty 

 trick trying to put out a gentleman's arm for claim- 

 ing his own dog. Billy was quite conscience-stricken 

 at finding himself in such low company. He knew 

 he had done something wrong. The man had to 

 stand in the yard with his back against the wall, 

 and hold the rope as evidence against himself, till 

 a Serjeant of police came. The rope was the link of 

 union ; it kept them all nicely connected together 

 The man began in a most piteous way. He told me 



