22 MISS BADSWORTH, M.F.H. 



The plan of campaign was slightly altered. The Squire 

 kept his hounds together, cheered them and cracked his 

 whip from time to time as patch after patch of gorse was 

 drawn. Jack the terrier was in his element, neither gorse 

 nor brambles were too thick for him. The little hill was 

 almost circular, and half had been drawn without result ; 

 twice on the far side the hounds strung themselves out in a 

 narrow sheep track, each time the Squire pulled up his horse 

 and cheered a hound by name. Presently his keen eyes 

 caught sight of something down below ; in a moment his 

 horn went to his lips, and his horse was slipping and slither- 

 ing down the hill-side. Jack watched the little pack get to 

 him, they wanted no driving on ; Miss Lavinia's place was a 

 sinecure. There was no holloaing, " He — e — e — y," was all 

 the Squire said as he plumped his pack down on the line, and 

 they burst into a joyous chorus. 



Jack and half a dozen more were close in their wake, for 

 the chances were there would be no ringing now, and yet 

 almost a circle was described whilst their fox tried the 

 various homesteads that had been the scene of his nightly 

 rounds. But he got no peace, the little pack sped along at 

 an incredible pace till nothing was left for their quarry but 

 to set his mask towards a place of safety. Down into a 

 little valley and up the opposite side they raced, the Squire 

 close at their sterns with Miss Lavvy in attendance. Jack 

 watched her as the handy Galloway popped over the low 

 walls and negotiated the stone-faced banks, and thought she 

 would be hard to beat with the Cranston. 



At the end of twenty-three minutes there was a slight hesi- 

 tation at a road ; the sky had clouded somewhat, and the air 

 was cooled by the suspicion of a sea-fog high up overhead. 

 With the wild moorland before him the Squire didn't hesi- 

 tate to hold his hounds forward, and a few seconds put 

 things right. 



There was less cultivated land now, and a sharp bend to 

 the right showed moorland — moorland, nothing but moor- 

 land. Some rocks cropped up upon the skyline (Jack Morgan 



