Wully 



and escaped by making for the Devil's Hole. 

 Once in this gorge, where the cracks in the 

 rocks extend unknown distances, he was safe. 

 The country folk began to see something more 

 than chance in the fact that he always escaped 

 at the Devil's Hole, and when one of the 

 hounds who nearly caught this Devil's Fox 

 soon after went mad, it removed all doubt as 

 to the spiritual paternity of said fox. 



He continued his career of rapine, making 

 audacious raids and hair-breadth escapes, and 

 finally began, as do many old foxes, to kill from 

 a mania for slaughter. Thus it was that Digby 

 lost ten lambs in one night. Carroll lost seven 

 the next night. Later, the vicarage duck-pond 

 was wholly devastated, and scarcely a night 

 passed but someone in the region had to report 

 a carnage of poultry, lambs or sheep, and, finally 



even calves. 



Of course all the slaughter was attributed to 

 this one fox of the Devil's Hole. It was known 

 only that he was a very large fox, at least one 

 that made a very large track. He never was 

 clearly seen, even by the huntsmen. And it 

 was noticed that Thunder and Bell, the stanch- 



390 



