MISS BADSWORTH, M.F.H. 23 



heard afterwards it was a Tor) and a horseman was to be 

 seen riding towards them for all he was worth, his figure 

 silhouetted against the sky. It was a new experience once 

 more for Jack. Now and then a detour had to be made on 

 account of a bog, now the heather was knee-deep, and again 

 a friendly track would lend its valuable aid. Up and up 

 they went for the Tor, and then suddenly the pack turned at 

 right angles and headed for what appeared to be an eternity 

 of heather. Phil Padstow with his knowledge of the fitness 

 of things had ridden hard for that Tor, and cracked his whip 

 to some purpose, but his horse was done with, and he con- 

 tented himself with riding slowly along and watching the 

 chase from the upper ground. The air was keen up there and 

 whistled merrily in Jack Morgan's ears as he got the best pace 

 he could out of Tom Barlow's nag. If ever he had admired 

 hounds, he did so the more now as they threaded the tracks 

 in the rough ground ; not a single hound had tailed off, and 

 the terrier was running well up in front. If the archbishops 

 and bishops of the Church had previously asserted the fact 

 that they could go the pace, Jack would have been a polite 

 dissenter. 



Two miles farther on they descended a coombe, and at the 

 bottom the Squire pulled up. " Go on, Lavvy," he shouted, 

 " my horse is lame." 



Jack offered to change. 



** Not for the world," was the reply. " I won't have you 

 get the chance to despise 'jellies'. Go on." 



Jack climbed the opposite steep and followed the girl on 

 the Galloway as fast as his sobbing horse could travel. 



Further on still there was the welcome respite of a check 

 on a small piece of cultivated ground, an oasis in the vast 

 of moorland. Out came Miss Lavvy's horn, she cantered 

 forward, one sharp blast, Jack put the hounds to her, and in 

 a twinkling all were going again. Now that fox was fat 

 and the scent on the moor was first class, and if any human 

 being had been there to see, they would have noticed that 

 his back was up and his brush was down ; but no one was 



